---
title: "Good Faith Collaboration"
chunk: 1/2
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Faith_Collaboration"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:32:26.574314+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia is a 2010 book by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. that deals with the topic of Wikipedia and the Wikipedia community. The book was first published on August 27, 2010, through the MIT Press and has a foreword by Lawrence Lessig. The book is an ethnographic study of the history of Wikipedia, its real life and theoretical precursors, and its culture including its consensus and collaborative practices.
The book has been described as a pioneering ethnographic study of the culture of Wikipedia. Reagle's main thesis has been summarized as the argument that "the success of Wikipedia may be less technological than a consequence of the community of Wikipedians and their cultural norms".

== History of publication ==
Good Faith Collaboration is based on Reagle's PhD dissertation. Reagle, the book's author, is a scholar specializing in sociology of the Internet, as well as a Wikipedia volunteer. In writing the book, Reagle relied on documents produced by the Wikipedia community, such as "content pages, discussion pages, mailing lists, newsletters, and meet-ups".
The book was published in 2010 by MIT Press. In September 2011, the Web edition of the book was released under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license and Japanese language translation was made on GitHub.

== Synopsis ==
The book is composed of 8 chapters with a foreword by Lawrence Lessig.
The book opens with Chapter 1, "Nazis and Norms", which provides an overview of the text, and the author's methodology. In Chapter 2, "The Pursuit of the Universal Encyclopedia", Reagle explores the history of encyclopedias and of community collaboration, focusing on the 20th century onward. Reagle mentions specific examples such as H.G. Wells' World Brain, Paul Otlet's Universal Repository, and the collaborative practices of Quakers.
Chapter 3, "Good Faith Collaboration", and Chapter 4, "The Puzzle of Openness", begin the ethnographic parts of the book. They discuss reasons why Wikipedia has met its intended purpose; these reasons include the effects of the project's core policies, such as neutral point of view, no original research, and verifiability, all made possible due to the "good faith", represented by virtues such as "assuming the best of others, patience, civility, and humor". The book's title itself alludes to the Wikipedia policy "Assume Good Faith" (AGF); Reagle argues that this policy has been a key to the Wikipedia project's success. Chapter 4 also addresses issues of licensing, as well as whether everything on Wikipedia can be edited by anyone, and the options for those who disagree (such as forking).
The next two chapters focus on the decision-making process within Wikipedia. Chapter 5, "The Challenges of Consensus", discusses the nature of consensus decision making within Wikipedia. Chapter 6, "The Benevolent Dictator", discusses the role of Jimbo Wales, the project's co-founder, as well as other less famous elements of Wikipedia's hierarchy, such as administrators, the Arbitration Committee, and the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees.
In Chapter 7, "Encyclopedic Anxiety", Reagle analyzes the popular and critical discussion of Wikipedia, including those of concerns about the prevalent "amateurism" of the project.