Public sphere

Habermas was born in 1929. He believed that the public sphere developed in the 18th century. The public sphere was when people would read books etc at home and come together in public to discuss ideas and share opinions as equals which transformed society to democracy as people could express their opinions. This relates to web 2.0 as people can now edit information online and influence it with their own opinions, for example in forums, social networking sites and wikipedia.