Interesting take, and I feel I agree for the most part. I think it`s simply the democratization of knowledge and a new pedagogy. Guarded knowledge, housed in hierarchical learning fraternities is okay, and will survive but not without change. There will always be families and students who prefer hierarchy and have the resources to pay for the brand, but beyond that, there are millions of people who remain uneducated, simply because of accessibility and cost. Where I live, there is no education. All of the teachers have moved to the cities.

I noticed on the course MIT Edtech Design and Development they`re using a new social discussion site, under beta called ProSolo. They appear to be placing more emphasis on social learning. Personally, I think the discussion boards are a little slow to develop into real discussions, and prefer the fast moving stream, like Twitter, of conversation and links happening in real time.

Brazil has Marco Civil - internet and digital privacy laws. New Zealand, nothing.