Mal Fletcher considers issues of regulation, repression, activism and anarchy

Yet he made no mention of the allegations which brought him to this situation.

What on earth does the work of US whistleblowers have to do with allegations of sexual abuse filed in Sweden? And how do allegations made about the personal behaviour of the Wikileaks leader existentially threaten the organisation itself - unless Wikileaks is just an extension of the Assange ego?

Doubtless, US governments have at times been involved in nefarious practices at home and abroad and US authorities may well want Julian Assange to answer for broadcasting their private communications to the world.

Yet, as Carl Bildt the Swedish Foreign Minister pointed out on BBC Radio, the Swedes have never shown an inclination to kowtow to US demands.

He added that Sweden has an excellent record in defending human rights and that the UK has much more of a claim to being a special friend of America than does Sweden.

So why, he asked, would Mr Assange rather stay in the UK than in Sweden?

Mr Assange casts himself as the noble knight fighting for a new level of political accountability in high places.

Yet by turning the story of his somewhat confusing struggle with the Swedish and British authorities into a paean to his own paranoia, Mr Assange may be doing a great disservice to the medium he uses to promote his brand of activism.

In the developed world, the web is recognised as perhaps our only truly universal or classless communications medium. It is not the exclusive domain of media moguls, boffins, members of the industrial-military complex or politicos who might use it to nudge public opinion in whatever direction they please.

The growth of the internet has brought with it enormous benefits for societies and for the global community as a whole. The world wide web has transformed it into the communication, entertainment and commercial juggernaut it is today.

The Cloud, a layer of interconnected nodes added to the web, now offers unprecedented opportunities for mass collaboration in science, manufacturing, education, activism and much more.

It will also eventually bring huge savings in internet and computer costs. Forbes magazine predicts a drop of up to 90 percent in the next few years.

The Cloud also provides the platform for an 'internet of things'. Billions of tiny, sensor-driven machines will soon be built into everything from the food packaging in our refrigerators to our clothing, all sending and receiving information to and from the internet.

Meanwhile, commerce is digitizing at a rapid rate. Even bricks-and-mortar shops are replacing traditional credit card services with the wave-and-pay variety and options for payment-enabled smartphones.