Index
Acknowledgements ix
Introduction 1
PART I
1. The Autonomy Imperative 9
Anarchism and the Global Network of Struggles 10
Self-realisation in the Digital Commons 14
Theories of Online Autonomy 17
The Internet Ideology and Informational Capitalism 20
Epistemic Tribal Projects 24
2. The Distribution of Charisma 29
Sticking It to the Virtual Man 29
Hacking Weber 34
Chiefs Without Authority 40
Distributed Production 43
Toadings in the Early Social Net 46
The Reputation Economy 48
3. The Tyranny of Structure 54
Power Laws 54
The Impact of Search 57
The Persistence of Archaic Force 60
Field Logic: Bourdieu 62
Gendering the Online Abject 65
4. The Grammar of justice 71
Criticality and justification 71
Legal Autonomy and Sovereign Authority 74
Norm Enforcement: Netiquette and Wizocracy 80
Tracking Authority in Four Online Tribes 88
PART II
5. The Last Online Tribe: primitivism.com 93
Project: Web 0.0 93
Authority: The One Inside 96
Conflict: The Bookchin Brouhaha 98
Radical Dissent and the Net 103
6. The Primary War: dailykos.com 105
Project: The Democratic Noise Machine 106
Authority: Drinking From a Fire Hose 109
Conflict: The Alegre Affair 117
7. The Imperfect Committee: debian.org 129
Project: The Universal Operating System 130
Authority: A Bazaar of Cathedrals 133
Conflict: The ST. Saga 139
8. The Great Sock Hunt: wikipedia.org 147
Project: Expert Texpert Choking Smokers 148
Authority: The Cabal 153
Conflict: The Durova Dust Up 160
9. Online Tribal Bureaucracy 169
Organisation Without Domination 170
Costs and Benefits 176
The Role of Conflict 180
The Political Economy of Online Tribalism 184
Notes 191
Index 233
