[apologies for multiple posts] Hi all
Thought you might be interested to know that my new book 'Cyberchiefs' which analyses leadership and organisation in free software projects, weblogs and wikis has been released. In fact, one of the case studies deals with Debian. It's not freely distributed, though. Small puhblisher, so, no CC (for now). Sorry. Please see the blurb below for more info. Cheers, Mathieu ******* Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes Mathieu ONeil April 2009 PB / £ 17.99 / $ 32.95 / 978-0-7453-2796-9 / 215mm x 135mm / 242 pp People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet. Decentralised production thrives on weblogs, wikis and free software projects. In Cyberchiefs, Mathieu ONeil 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, ONeil shows that leaders must support maximum autonomy for participants, and he analyses the tensions generated by this distribution of authority. 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 LOrientale and author of Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age. Mathieu ONeil is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian National University in the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, and Principal Researcher at Australias 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! ******* Mathieu O'Neil, Ph.D Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute The Australian National University Room 4101, Coombs Building (9) ACT 0200 - Australia E-mail: [email protected] Tel: (61) 2 61 25 38 00 Web: http://adsri.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/mathieu.php -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [email protected] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [email protected]
