Great article Harold!

I would dare to disagree slightly on one point - I don't think hierarchies are obsolete. We might wish them to be but even in networks, hubs form. It's another form of hierarchy with a few stars and everyone else. Potentially emergent (see below) but once it forms, politics shift to protecting it and that is what I'd like to see become obsolete. Tho' klout scores and ranks don't help, they try to create an artificial hierarchy. (wrote about it here - Social networks do not need a hierarchy )

The emergent element is the power law. As choice grows, it can become overwhelming and people tend to pick the defaults - what's everyone else doing? As soon as stars begin to emerge, their popularity will accelerate - the more you are picked, the more likely you are to be picked by others, creating the exponential curve. Same applies to connections. Human nature seems addicted to the cult of celebrity in every sphere.

The challenge is that, once the stars form it becomes increasingly more difficult for a new star to emerge in any way other than deliberately. Even if somebody arrives into a network with great knowledge and insight, they will have to try and game the system to become noticed. It's another form of hierarchy. The potential upside with it versus the traditional ladder is that it can be more easily disrupted if mechanisms are put in place to keep encouraging diversity to form new hubs or more hubs of a smaller size to flatten out large ones that can skew power. But some artificial manipulation seems necessary to prevent 'super-hubs' from dominating.

The tension and relationship between networks and hierarchies continues through the ages... :-)