Prindi

Vasilis Kostakis

Title: ‘Towards Open Source Democracy: The Emergence of Wikipolitics’

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Drechsler

Opponent: Prof. Dr. Ülle Madise, Chair of Public Law, TUT

Defense: 12 June 2009

Abstract: It has been claimed that the Web 2.0, the Open Source movement and the emerging mode of peer production inaugurate a new era of debate about openness, transparency, participation and cooperation as bedrocks for building the civilization of modern world. In the thesis, by way of introducing the concept of wikipolitics, it is attempted to shed some light on whether, and if so how, politics and democracies can benefit from this emerging participatory spirit and the modern ICTs, and to document possible dangers of such a shift in the democratic process.

Keywords: Open Source, Wikipolitics, Peer Production, Democracy, ICT