Synopses & Reviews
"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." --Jimmy Wales
With more than 2,000,000 individual articles on everything from Aa! (a Japanese pop group) to Zzyzx, California, written by an army of volunteer contributors, Wikipedia is the #8 site on the World Wide Web. Created (and corrected) by anyone with access to a computer, this impressive assemblage of knowledge is growing at an astonishing rate of more than 30,000,000 words a month. Now for the first time, a Wikipedia insider tells the story of how it all happened--from the first glimmer of an idea to the global phenomenon it's become.
Andrew Lih has been an administrator (a trusted user who is granted access to technical features) at Wikipedia for more than four years, as well as a regular host of the weekly Wikipedia podcast. In The Wikipedia Revolution, he details the site's inception in 2001, its evolution, and its remarkable growth, while also explaining its larger cultural repercussions. Wikipedia is not just a website; it's a global community of contributors who have banded together out of a shared passion for making knowledge free.
Featuring a Foreword by Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and an Afterword that is itself a Wikipedia creation.
Review
and#8220;This book will make people sit up and think in a new way about a timely set of issues. Tkaczand#8217;s argument is not predictable or one-dimensional. Instead, it is productive of new knowledge at each step. Each new layer of argument uncovers riches of detail, new bibliographies of current research, and surprising new directions of thought. His argument balances nicely between powerful general statements and compelling concrete demonstrations.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;A crucial intervention in the field of new media studies. The book thinks rigorously about participation and collaboration as few others do. It is certain to generate much excitement, debate, and even controversy.and#8221;
Review
and#8220;Highly original and delightfully written, Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness is one of the finest pieces of work I have read in the field of network cultures and software studies. Tkacz has undertaken a comprehensive critique of opennessand#8212;or open politicsand#8212;as it manifests across a range of institutional and social-technical settings. This book has all the key ingredients to make a substantial impact in debates surrounding network governance and software politics.and#8221;
Review
andldquo;Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness is an important book. . . . At one level it is a fascinating inside look at the operations of Wikipedia andndash; from someone who clearly knows and understands it from the inside. . . . At the next level, Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness is a critique not just of Wikipedia but of the whole idea of openness andndash; one of the sacred cows of the internet, something considered almost beyond criticism. . . . Tkacz challenges assumptions and forces you to question your own views, particularly about openness itself.andrdquo;
Review
andldquo;Tkaczandrsquo;s book is an important reminder to be critical of any discourse that advocates technology as a one-solution-fits-all quick fix. His analysis of Wikipedia demonstrates, in fine detail, that hierarchy does not disappear when digital collaboration is added to the mix. Indeed, it is often precisely the opposite.andrdquo;
Synopsis
A Wikipedia expert tells the inside story of the trailblazing--and incrediblypopular--open source encyclopedia.
Synopsis
In this book, Nathaniel Tkacz turns a critical eye toward the new open politics through an analysis of the most celebrated open project to date, Wikipedia. Where, he asks, does the current notion of openness come from, and to what political situation does it speak? Tkacz argues that open politics has been shaped by a series of developments in software cultures in the 80s and 90s, which were carried forward into the participatory web cultures of the last decade. With a critique of those cultures as his starting point, Tkacz turns to the messy realities of Wikipedia. He weaves together discussions of edit wars, article deletion policies, bots, Wikipediaand#8217;s and#147;five pillarsand#8221; (fundamental principles), user access levels, mailing list archives, and the 2002 Spanish fork controversy. The resulting picture of Wikipedia contrasts starkly with much previous commentary. Wikipedia is not proof of and#147;the wisdom of the crowds,and#8221; Tkacz argues, but neither does it reflect and#147;the cult of the amateurand#8221;; it is not an example of and#147;good faith collaborationand#8221; or a model for new collaborative business practices (and#147;Wikinomicsand#8221;), but neither is it simply the latest instantiation of the bureaucratic form. In demystifying Wikipedia, Tkacz helps break and#147;the spell of open politics.and#8221;
Synopsis
Few virtues are as celebrated in contemporary culture as openness. Rooted in software culture and carrying more than a whiff of Silicon Valley technical utopianism, opennessand#151;of decision-making, data, and organizational structureand#151;is seen as the cure for many problems in politics and business.
and#160;
But what does openness mean, and what would a political theory of openness look like? With Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, Nathaniel Tkacz uses Wikipedia, the most prominent product of open organization, to analyze the theory and politics of openness in practiceand#151;and to break its spell. Through discussions of edit wars, article deletion policies, user access levels, and more, Tkacz enables us to see how the key concepts of opennessand#151;including collaboration, ad-hocracy, and the splitting of contested projects through and#147;forkingand#8221;and#151;play out in reality.
and#160;
The resulting book is the richest critical analysis of openness to date, one that roots media theory in messy reality and thereby helps us move beyond the vaporware promises of digital utopians and take the first steps toward truly understanding what openness does, and does not, have to offer.
About the Author
Andrew Lih was an academic for ten years at Columbia University and Hong Kong University in new media and journalism. He has also worked as a software engineer, entrepreneur, new media researcher, and writer. Lih has been involved with Wikipedia since 2003, helps plan the annual Wikimania conference, and frequently acts as a spokesman for Wikipedia in Asia. He has been a commentator on new media, technology and journalism issues on CNN, BBC radio, MSNBC and NPR.
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Open Politics
2 Sorting Collaboration Out
3 The Governance of Forceful Statements: From Ad-Hocracy to Ex Corpore
4 Organizational Exit and the Regime of Computation
5 Controversy in Action
Conclusion: The Neoliberal Tinge
Appendix A: Archival Statements from the Depictions of Muhammad Debate
Appendix B: Selections from the Mediation Archives
References
Index