Cyberchiefs Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes

by O'Neil, Mathieu

• ISBN13: 9780745327969
• ISBN10: 0745327966
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-04-15
• Publisher: UCP

Summary

The internet has opened up a huge range of new ways for people to work together. Special-interest groups thrive through weblogs, wikis and free software projects. Participants do not perceive themselves as producers or consumers of digital information, but as citizens taking part in innovative forms of democracy.Mathieu O'Neil examines the dynamics of these working relationships. He shows that the cooperative nature of online work is not without its own internal hierarchies. Taking case studies of autonomous groups such as the radical Primitivism archive, the Daily Kos political weblog, the Debian free software project, and Wikipedia, O'Neil explores how leaders are compelled to support maximum autonomy for participants, but this distribution of authority generates tensions. He shows how participants engage in warfare with internal and external enemies, who play a crucial role in helping to define project identity and purpose.

Author Biography

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, Maniere 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.