Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Stanford Law School and the founder of Center for Internet and Society. I was at the Al Jazeera Media Forum in Doha, Qatar and heard his keynote address there in April 2007.
Lawrence Lessig's talk is perhaps the most succinct and accurate description that I've heard about the role of the Internet today in democracy, society and journalism.
His perspective is an important tool in understanding the enormous transformations that we are seeing and participating in today.