What do Wikipedia—an online encyclopedia—and bitcoin—internet money—have in common? Both are open-source projects. This type of initiative is playing an increasingly powerful role in many areas of life.

Open-source networks function by having open collaboration between their participants. But what does that mean?

An open-source system tends to have a clearly defined goal.

In bitcoin’s case, it’s to serve as a peer-to-peer version of money: money that isn’t controlled by any particular government or entity

In Wikipedia’s case it’s to provide a neutrally written summary of mainstream knowledge.

But having a clear goal is not the same thing as having a formal organisational structure. In an open-source project there is no boss issuing directions from above. And there is also often very loose coordination between those taking part.

All the same, these projects don’t run on autopilot. There must be some human politics involved. So what are those politics?

To explore that question, New Money Review interviews Jaya Klara Brekke, a postdoctoral fellow at Durham University’s Geography Department, where she researches future cryptoeconomics.