Wiki Government shows how technology can be used to produce more open, participatory, and ultimately more legitimate ways for government to work. In this lively, thought-provoking book, Beth Simone Noveck tells the story of how she and a far-flung team of technologists, lawyers, and policymakers collaborated to revolutionize government practice by allowing ordinary citizens to participate in the patent examination process for the first time. Patent examination exemplifies one of the greatest challenges government agencies face -- making numerous, highly complex decisions based on inadequate time and information. The solution Noveck devised was to use the Internet to create communities of self-selected experts who collectively discuss, vet, and contribute their expertise to the policy process. In Wiki Government, Noveck shows how and why this innovation works. In addition, she demonstrates what it takes to get such innovations adopted by tradition-bound government agencies. The lessons she draws from this experience extend far beyond patents. The same technology can be used in a broad array of ways to connect the power of the many to the work of the few in government.

Beth Simone Noveck is professor of law and director of the Institute for Information Law & Policy at New York Law School, as well as the McClatchy Associate Visiting Professor at Stanford University. She graduated from Harvard University and earned a J.D. from Yale Law School and a doctorate at the University of Innsbruck. Professor Noveck pioneered the creation of the Democracy Design Workshop, a collaborative "do tank," where students and faculty at New York Law School and across institutions work together in teams to develop legal code and software code to foster open, transparent, and collaborative ways of learning, working, and governing. In 2007, with the support of grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Omidyar Network, CA, IBM, Microsoft, HP, GE, Intellectual Ventures, and Red Hat, Professor Noveck launched the Peer-to-Patent project in collaboration with the United States Patent and Trademark Office. Peer-to-Patent opens patent examination to public participation for the first time. Japan and the United Kingdom have launched similar pilots.

2008 Frankfurt rights catalog.