Dominique Cardon has set out to characterize the specific transformations of public space resulting from the development of Internet uses. By shifting the selection of what deserves publicity from ex ante to ex post , the Internet expands the public space in two ways: by increasing the number of speakers within a population of amateurs, and by drawing Internet users' conversations into the public space. The web has liberated speech by challenging the authority of those who previously enjoyed a monopoly on access to the public arena: journalists, politicians and experts. For Dominique Cardon, three lectures can be drawn from this new dynamic, concerning respectively the definition of publics (the presupposition of equality), the diversity of expression (the liberation of subjectivities) and the porosity between ordinary conversation and public discussion (the public from below).
Dominique Cardon is a sociologist at Orange Labs' Laboratoire des usages and a research associate at the Centre d'études des mouvements sociaux (EHESS).
