Cyberchiefs : Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes

People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet.

Decentralised production thrives on blogs, wikis and free software projects.

Cyberchiefs focuses on the regulations of these working relationships.

It 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, Daily Kos, the Debian free software project and Wikipedia, this book shows that leaders must support maximum autonomy for participants, and looks at the tensions generated by this distribution of authority.