Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness

by Nathaniel Tkacz

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, openness—of decision-making, data, and organizational structure—is seen as the cure for many problems in politics and business.
 
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 practice—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 openness—including collaboration, ad-hocracy, and the splitting of contested projects through “forking”—play out in reality.
 
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.

232 pages, Paperback

First published December 6, 2014

Reviews

[Rand]

In Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness, Nathaniel Tkacz carefully addresses one of the most enduring myths of technology’s participatory potential: openness. “Openness” is a bit of a catchall term, but generally implies unrestricted participation, transparency in governance, and widespread collaboration. (Think “open” as in open-source software, open-access journals, or Massive Open Online Courses.) As Tkacz systematically argues, openness is a political project that obscures its own inner workings, sweeping power differentials and inequality under an apolitical rug. In other words, a project that proclaims itself “open” is able to sidestep questions of power and agency—even when it’s clear, as in the case of Wikipedia, that such issues remain. As a software engineer might say, this murkiness is a feature, not a bug; it is precisely the apparent ability of openness to float above the mire that appeals to people across the political spectrum, and makes it almost invulnerable to critique. —Alice E. Marwick

[Jan D]

The "politics of openness" connect high level discourses of politics, capitalism, objectivism and cybernetics with the often mundane and conflict-ridden work behind the articles that are usually first in your web searches. The book does not give a single, easy answer but provides a mix of perspectives on Wikipedia. However, it is relevant beyond the online encyclopedia, since "flat hierarchies", "ad-hocracy" and "open organizations" are part of many political and economic discussions today.
The book might also be useful if one is interested in media studies and anthropology since it shows how the author is using frame analysis and ANT to show patterns in Wikipedia discourses.

[Ietrio]

Oh, the sweet irony! Wikipedia. An open project. Where people collaborate freely. And which lives off kind donations. Examined by a leech living off the money collected from the poor and the needy by the government. And giving a book probably on a government subvention, one that you can pay cash to read. And while Wikipedia gives something to the world, Tkacz will take in more when he reaches pension age, without giving even the sh***y review of essays for the paying students.