Wikipedia as an emergent order . . .

Peter Klein, over at Organizations and Markets writes on the 10th anniverary of Wikipedia:

The relationship between the Wikipedia model and Hayek’s concept of dispersed, tacit knowledge, exploited through decentralized decision-making, is perhaps to obvious to note

While the authors of the blog are not yet found on Wikipedia (there is a Greg Pratt listed an actor) it is hard to know what the future holds.

That is the point of emergent and evolutionary orders, I read that Wikipedia is a natural experiment in political science as the system of order and rules emerges in a very public (although not always transparent) forum.

A number of observers decry or denigrate the emergence of wikipedia. This is not surprising in an environment in which elites prize control, particularly control by elites.

So as information collection and presentation becomes increasingly decentralized by the internet, wikipedia will continue to emerge as an increasingly important organization.

So, that said, I clicked over to Friedrich Hayek on wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FA_Hayek. While I am far from an expert on Hayek I have more than a passing acquaintance with him and his work. Russ Roberts recently interviewed Bruce Caldwell on Hayek - http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2011/01/caldwell_on_hay.html
Both wikipedia and Caldwell seem to be on the same page.

This is not to say that wikipedia does not contain errors, false or misleading information or outright fraud. In this way, the organization is reflective of the broader society.