Wiki and the Agora: ‘It's organising, Jim, but not as we know it’

Abstract

This article argues that those keen to characterise and harness the empowering potential of Information and Communications Technology [ICT] for development projects must understand that the very existence of this technology opens up alternative models of co-operation and collaboration. These models themselves necessitate breaking away from ‘traditional’ command-and-control models of management. One alternative is to persuade participants, or potential participants, to co-ordinate their efforts along the lines exemplified by the open-source software movement and the contributors to Wikipedia: models of co-ordination that ought not to work but appear to do so. The article offers a summary of this argument, and then suggests ways in which NGOs in particular might try to incorporate these insights into their strategies. This is particularly critical for organisations that rely on increasingly pressurised funding opportunities, and which also seek to develop and engender participation and determination from within and among specific target groupings.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to various colleagues at LeedsMet who provided helpful comments on earlier versions of this paper, as have Deborah Eade and Mike Powell.

Notes

1. This may appear at first sight a strangely formulated observation – after all, disasters such as the Asian tsunami of December 2004 were hardly avoidable. The key point is that with more effective use of information and communication, the impact and aftermath of such devastations and upheavals can be significantly mitigated in areas where people are especially vulnerable.

2. The Basel Action Network reports highlight the ways in which poor nations have become the toxic dumps for richer nations' technological detritus, thus completing the cycle from production to obsolescence – see www.ban.org/BANreports/10-24-05/

3. I shall use the acronym SD when referring to Software Development; the term ‘development’ on its own will then refer to the concept central to this publication and its readership.

4. Raymond refers here to computer programs, but the point is still relevant if the paragraph is read as referring to development programmes.

5. The term ‘hacker’ is used here in its original meaning of someone who hacks code, i.e. someone who produces and modifies computer software. So ‘hacker’ is a term of approval, indicating that the person is skilled and experienced at the complex task of software development.

6. The case of John Seigenthaler was particularly noteworthy (see www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,1661693,00.html).

7. It should be noted that errors and inaccuracies are not confined to Wikipedia, but can also be found in more prestigious encyclopaedias, as illustrated in the December 2005 article in Wired (www.wired.com/news/culture/1,69844-0.html).

8. A good resource can be found at http://c2.com/cgi-bin/wiki?WikiWikiWeb.

9. Raymond's emailed response to an earlier version of this paper that I sent him for comment made this abundantly clear.

10. Perceptive readers will have noted that issues of power and authority have not been directly addressed in this article. Also the term agenda has been used in an almost neutral fashion, whereas it masks a crucial site of contention with regard to the nature and trajectory of development, the common assumption that development consists of less-developed countries simply following a path already mapped out by more-developed ones. Constraints of time and permitted length prevent me from developing these ideas at this juncture.

11. I wrote a brief comment about it on 11 January 2005, which is available at www.lmu.ac.uk/internat/reflects/jan05/jan11.htm

12. The original story can be found at www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml = /news/2005/01/01/ugeog.xml&sSheet = /portal/2005/01/01/ixportaltop.html; such is her subsequent fame, however, that a plethora of stories and awards followed (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4229392.stm); and the ultimate accolade, an entry in Wikipedia (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilly_Smith).

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Antony Bryant

Antony Bryant has been Professor of Informatics at Leeds Metropolitan University (LeedsMet) since 1994. He develops courses particularly at postgraduate level in Leeds, Africa, and South-East Asia. His background covers the social sciences, computing, and software development. His forthcoming book Thinking Informatically will be published in 2006, and he is currently senior editor for the International Handbook of Grounded Theory, due to appear in 2007.