I proposed a way to ameliorate the Wikipedia "strength over reason" misfeature a while back, but it seems to have generated no traction whatsoever. My distance from the Wikipedia A-list presumably has something to do with my lack of success. Ah well.

Regarding the other oligarchies you mention, it seems that members demographic groups that have disproportionate influence in society at large have disproportionate influence in the blogosphere. (I'm shocked--shocked!) If more women become influential in the political and the high-tech worlds, we can expect to see more influential women bloggers. I'm not sure how much blogging can do to make women more influential, though.