Hi everyone
Thought you might be interested to review my new book 'Cyberchiefs' which analyses
leadership and organisation in free software projects, weblogs and wikis, in fact one of
the case studies is English WP.
Cheers,
Mathieu
mathieu.oneil(a)anu.edu.au
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Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes
Mathieu O’Neil
April 2009
PB / £ 17.99 / $ 32.95 / 978-0-7453-2796-9 / 215mm x 135mm / 242 pp
‘Going against all easy celebrations of an Internet culture without authority or power
structures, Cyberchiefs offers an important and relevant account of the innovations in
forms of authority expressed by the social dynamics of Internet group formations.’
Tiziana Terranova, associate professor of Sociology of Communications and Cultural Studies
at the University of Naples ‘L’Orientale’ and author of Network Culture: Politics for the
Information Age.
People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet. Decentralised
production thrives on weblogs, wikis and free software projects. In Cyberchiefs, Mathieu
O’Neil focuses on the regulation of these working relationships. He examines the
transformation of leadership and expertise in online networks, and the emergence of
innovative forms of participatory politics.
What are the costs and benefits of alternatives to hierarchical organisation? Using case
studies of online projects or ‘tribes’ such as the radical Primitivism archive, the Daily
Kos political weblog, the Debian free software project, and Wikipedia, O’Neil shows that
leaders must support maximum autonomy for participants, and he analyses the tensions
generated by this distribution of authority.
Mathieu O’Neil is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian National University in the
Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, and Principal Researcher at
Australia’s Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy. He has
contributed articles to Le Monde diplomatique, Manière de voir and Factsheet 5. He has
also worked as a magazine editor and designer, as an editor on the collective New Media
Art weblog Under the Sun, and has curated international digital art exhibitions.
Publisher webpage (US):
http://us.macmillan.com/cyberchiefs
Obligatory Facebook page: Coming soon!
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