In a way, I think he is looking at the economics via this analogy. In Feudal Europe, the greatest economic resource was land. If you controlled lots of land, y

In a way, I think he is looking at the economics via this analogy. In Feudal Europe, the greatest economic resource was land. If you controlled lots of land, you had lots of power. But land was expensive to maintain and make productive. There was a lot of overhead, so merely owning it wouldn't make you rich. The feudal arrangement was that lords contracted the land out to vassals, who then employed serfs to work it. Protection and convenience flowed down, and in return wealth flowed up. Now the greatest economic resource is information, and controlling it gives you power. But producing information in a top-down manner is ineffective, so in return for protection and convenience, the serf-users of the internet age produce a wealth of information for their lords. The main difference in the power relationship seems to be that modern serf-users are free to choose their lords, leading to greater competition among rival lords, whereas feudal serfs were born into the service of a single vassal, who in turn served a single lord.