The panopticon was Foucault’s ultimate structure of modern control, drawing off the inherent power that comes with being aware of others’ actions. Recent technological (camera phones) and socio-technological advances (generally Web 2.0) have led to what worldchanging.com co-founder Jamais Cascio calls the “participatory panopticon”: the first steps into a world of endless self-recording. From worldchanging.com:

The participatory panopticon has been a frequent theme here. Ally RU Sirius (with whom I did an interview a few months back [download here]) talks with Jamais Cascio about the concept here (MP3). It’s a good listen.