A theory of authorial leadership

Working within the cotext of what I call "open content communities":

1. I identify features of leadership in related communities (e.g. emergent leaders and discussions of cabals);
2. I confirm and extend such features -- with qualifications -- within the Wikipedia community;
3. I pose these features as a theory of "authorial" leadership.

Seven features follows.

Emergent and with a Soft Touch

Leaders tend to be emergent; founding a community or arising from an initially leaderless context by way of merit and " speaking softly " (Raymond 1998). Emergent leaders are friendly and have a considerate (person) orientation, a goal (task) orientation, competence and significant level of activity. This activity provides the heartbeat of the community. (Alavi, Ferraro, Fleming, O'Mahony, Waguspack ... )

• "But, again, credit goes to Jimmy alone for getting Bomis to invest in the project, and for providing broad oversight of the fantastic and world-changing project of an open content, collaboratively-built encyclopedia." (Sanger 2005)
• "As it turns out, it was Jimmy who spoke softly and carried the big stick ; he first exercised 'enforcement authority.' Since he was relatively silent throughout these controversies, he was the ' good cop ,' and I was the 'bad cop' .... Because Jimmy had remained relatively toward the background in the early days of the project, and showed that he was willing to exercise enforcement authority upon occasion , he was never so ripe for attack as I was." (Sanger 2005)
• "I have chosen a ' middle-ground ' method of moderation, a sort of behind-the-scenes prodding . (Wales as quoted in Poe 2006h1t)

Mixed governance

Leaders operate within a mix of governance models: meritocratic (setting the direction by leading the way), autocratic (acting as an arbiter or defender of last resort), anarchic (consensus) and occasionally democratic (voting) (Coleman 2005, p. 7).

• "Wikipedia is not a democracy, though it has democratic features. Wikipedia is not an aristocracy, though it has aristocratic features. Wikipedia is not a monarchy, though it has monarchical features. (Wales cited in Wikipedia 2006mtb)

Informal status

Leadership is not often granted formal status -- meritocratic action and egalitarian discourse reign. Informal status as " Benevolent Dictator " (Raymond 1998; Wikipedia 2006bdl) may be accorded to a prominent leader, such as a founder.

• "For the sake of wikipedia, and to let all the international projects grow up (without a strong hand to lead them), it was important that the role of the editor in chief disappear ." (Anthere 2005sm)

Channel momentum

Early leadership (i.e. founders) lends direction and momentum to the development of a community's culture (Schein 2004): it is more of a guiding force than coercion. (Coleman 2005)

• "I think a project of such a type can only work *without* a strong authority . It is important to let people built their own organisation. Jimbo has this very powerful strength, in this that he lets most of the organisation be a self-organisation. For those who know a bit about leadership, it is a rather rare occurence." (Anthere 2005sm)
• "His type is essentially supportive . Very low direction but very high support. This leaves basically as much opportunity to work in certain directions as one would dream of. However, one moves in a direction supported by Jimbo much more quickly than in a direction not supported by Jimbo." (Anthere 2005ncg)

Persuade, arbitrate, defend

Leaders often convince by persuasion and example, occasionally exercising charismatic authority . Actions of merit accrue as " idiosyncrasy credits " (Hollander 1960) or "reputation" (Raymond 1998) and can be expended in order to act, as a last resort , as an arbiter between those of good faith or as a defender against those of bad faith. Such autocratic behaviour is often more " efficient " in difficult circumstances "than authority deriving its legitimacy from well-established rules" (Garzarelli and Galoppini 2003)

• "Wikipedia suffers from many voices, often contradictory. I think you need an influential leader to take final decisions (after community input of course)." (NSK 2005)
• "The danger of course is that the benign dictator may turn out to be biased or wrong himself. So I hestitate to do this except in cases where speed is of essence , or where it's just very clearcut and easy. What I prefer is that I can act as a temporary bridge and 'person to blame' while we work on community solutions." (Wales 2005nnw1)
• "It is not possible for 10,000 NeoNazis (if such numbers exist) to storm into Wikipedia and take it over by subverting our organic democratic processes because I will not allow it. Period. So we don't have to overdesign those processes out of a paranoia of a hostile takeover." (Wales 2005nnw1)

The danger of overreaching

Leaders whose autocratic actions exceed their accumulated merit/charisma risk community dissent or even forking (Wheeler 2005).

• "Perhaps you could clarify that this was not done in your role as trustee. I don't believe it was, as you did not consult with Angela and Anthere, so I consider it just like an edit by any other Wikipedia editor , only that, of course, you hope that people will take it more seriously because of the reputation that comes with your role in the project, past and present. That's completely reasonable, if done rarely and in cases you consider important." (Moeller 2005tap)
• "This kind of hero-worship begins with Christians who find it more chic to parrot Christ's words than to live them. In our context this translates into using 'Jimbo said ...' as an argument that would stop all debate." (Saintonge 2005wfi)

Humor and good faith culture

Humor and a "culture of good faith" facilitate camaraderie between all participants and eases the exercise of authority and the related anxiety about it. We've also seen this in concerns of cabals in Usenet (Pfaffenberger 1996) and Debian (Coleman 2005, p. 23).

• "These jokes don't have a 'point'. If you scour the list for all messages, you will find that I am not the only one who has a sense of humour and knows how to make jokes. In fact, this extends to Ant, Mav, Jimbo, etc. who can occasionally be found to be making a joke on this list. I don't know how it is with you, but as far as I know the point of humour is to lighten up a situation , and only occasionally to make a point." (Williamson 2005wfi)

Examples of "good faith" virtues of patience , politeness , humility , and a willingess to apologize is also evident.

• In response to someone concerned about perennial problems, including language policies, Wales wrote, "I'm very sympathetic to all these points. I don't have an easy answer what to do" (Wales 2005sw).
• When Wales recommended some text be added to a page when it was already present he wrote, "Ok, my mistake, I'm very very sorry. I didn't see that. I apologize for any confusion" (Wales 2005shd).

Conclusion: the tin crown

Only those leaders that tread carefully and continue to make important contributions (including, now, the judicious exercise of autocratic authority) are granted the "dictator" title.

While this term might not be the most appropriate in capturing the genuine character of this role, it serves as a warning : a good-natured joke balanced on the edge of becoming a feared reality .

It serves as a caution to such leaders, as well as a metaphoric yardstick for discussing any participant's action.

Questions?

Comments and questions are welcome!