Dariusz Jemielniak is Professor of Management at Kozminski University in Warsaw, Poland, where he heads the Center for Research on Organizations and Workplaces. Beyond academia, he is a heavily-engaged Wikipedian and was elected in 2015 to the Board of Trustees of WIkimedia Foundation
"Jemielniak presents an evenhanded look at Wikipedia, showing how
policy along with a balance of bureaucracy work well. The author
explores the problems editors and the Wikimedia Foundation (the
nonprofit organization supporting Wikipedia projects) are trying to
work through. His criticism is constructive, focusing on situations
and issues that have improved or can improve Wikipedia, including
how founder Jimmy Wales's role has shifted . . . Methodology,
glossary, and an extensive bibliography are included for Wikipedia
novices and interested researchers . . . Recommended."—S. Marks,
CHOICE
"It's the first anthropological study of an internet hive mind now
entering its adolescence. The book pulls off a near-impossible
double act, serving as both primer and detailed study on the habits
of Wikipedians. It presents Wikipedia as a 'parahierarchy' thriving
on its own conflicts, where even the dense catalogue of house rules
is subject to reinterpretation . . . [Jemielniak's] depiction of
its present and past shows how much the free encyclopaedia has
already developed to become a worldwide movement."—Roisin Kiberd,
Motherboard
"This is a trailblazing study of Wikipedia—a phenomenon that is so
much in our daily lives, while remaining mysterious to most of us.
We should be thankful to Jemielniak for this study. As a seasoned
user, an insider, and a scholar, his thorough account introduces us
to Wikipedia's inner mechanisms, productive processes, quality
controls, splendors, and miseries as a treasury of knowledge that
is without precedence and, increasingly, without
competition."—Zygmunt Bauman, University of Leeds
"Jemielniak confronts the fascinating politics of Wikipedia as an
insider, relaying the healthy clash of cultures and values that
ensues as people try to get it right. This is a wonderful, detailed
account of Wikipedia's rules and hierarchies, culture of consensus,
internal power structures, governance, and leadership—especially in
its English and Polish incarnations."—Jonathan Zittrain, Harvard
University and author of The Future of the Internet—And How to Stop
It
"Of all the social artifacts we've built on top of the internet,
Wikipedia is at once the strangest and the most familiar. Half a
billion people visit every month, but almost no one knows how it
works or why. Dariusz Jemielniak has written a thoughtful and
multi-faceted account of Wikipedia's culture, contradictions, and
challenges."—Clay Shirky, New York University and author of
Cognitive Surplus: Creativity and Here Comes Everybody: The Power
of Organizing Without Organizations
"Common Knowledge? is the first fully ethnographic study of
Wikipedia culture. This thoughtful and intellectually provocative
study sheds new light on a community behind the largest
collaborative movement of humankind, and is a must-read for all
interested in open collaboration movement."—Jimmy Wales, founder of
Wikipedia
"Wikipedia is breathtakingly important, but it's new enough that it
hasn't been studied much yet. This well-informed, thoughtful book
from management professor and longtime Wikipedian Dariusz
Jemielniak takes readers behind the scenes, exploring how Wikipedia
works and why it matters. It's an important addition to the
existing literature."—Sue Gardner, 2007-2013 Executive Director of
Wikimedia Foundation
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