Adhocratic Governance in the Internet Age

A Case of Wikipedia

Bibliographic Data

ID12972249
AuthorsP Konieczny (0000-0001-9938-307X, University of Pittsburgh, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume7
Issue4
Pages263-283
Publication date2010-10-11
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Information Technology & Politics (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1933-169X • E-ISSN: 1933-1681
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/19331681.2010.489408
OpenAlexW1996921241
LanguageEN
Citations received17
References cited41

In recent years, a new realm has appeared for the study of political and sociological phenomena: the Internet. This article will analyze the decision-making processes of one of the largest online communities, Wikipedia. Founded in 2001, Wikipedia—now among the top-10 most popular sites on the Internet—has succeeded in attracting and organizing millions of volunteers and creating the world's largest encyclopedia. To date, however, little study has been done of Wikipedia's governance. There is substantial confusion about its decision-making structure. The organization's governance has been compared to many decision-making and political systems—from democracy to dictatorship, from bureaucracy to anarchy. It is the purpose of this article to go beyond the earlier simplistic descriptions of Wikipedia's governance in order to advance the study of online governance, and of organizations more generally. As the evidence will show, while Wikipedia's governance shows elements common to many traditional governance models, it appears to be closest to the organizational structure known as adhocracy

Business · Corporate governance · Internet governance · Internet privacy · Media studies · Political science · Politics · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Digital Games and Media · Law · Social Media and Politics · Wikis in Education and Collaboration

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Open DOISci-HubOpen Access