Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes

Cyberchiefs: Autonomy and Authority in Online Tribes

Mathieu O’Neil

April 2009

PB / £ 17.99 / $ 32.95 / 978-0-7453-2796-9 / 215mm x 135mm / 242pp
HB / £ 60.00 / $ 95.00 / 978-0-7453-2797-6 / 215mm x 135mm / 242pp


People are inventing new ways of working together on the internet. Decentralised production thrives on weblogs, wikis and free software projects. In Cyberchiefs, Mathieu O’Neil 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, O’Neil 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 ‘L’Orientale’ and author of Network Culture: Politics for the Information Age.


Mathieu O’Neil is Adjunct Research Fellow at the Australian National University in the Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, and Principal Researcher at Australia’s 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!

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Dr Mathieu O'Neil
Adjunct Research Fellow
Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute
College of Arts and Social Science
The Australian National University

E-mail: mathieu.oneil@anu.edu.au
Tel.: (61 02) 61 25 38 00
Web: http://adsri.anu.edu.au/people/visitors/mathieu.php
Mail: Coombs Building, 9
Canberra, ACT 0200 - AUSTRALIA