Wikipedia and the Politics of Openness

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, Wikipedia’s "five pillars” (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 "the wisdom of the crowds,” Tkacz argues, but neither does it reflect "the cult of the amateur”; it is not an example of "good faith collaboration” or a model for new collaborative business practices ("Wikinomics”), but neither is it simply the latest instantiation of the bureaucratic form. In demystifying Wikipedia, Tkacz helps break "the spell of open politics.”