Do as I Do:: Authorial Leadership in Wikipedia

Do as I Do:: Authorial Leadership in Wikipedia - scientific work related to Wikipedia quality published in 2007, written by Joseph Reagle.

Overview

In seemingly egalitarian collaborative on-line communities, like Wikipedia, there is often a paradoxical, or perhaps merely playful, use of the title "Benevolent Dictator" for leaders. Author explore discourse around the use of this title so as to address how leadership works in open content communities. Author first review existing literature on "emergent leadership" and then relate excerpts from community discourse on how leadership is understood, performed, and discussed by Wikipedians. Author conclude by integrating concepts from existing literature and my own findings into a theory of "authorial" leadership.