The future of philanthropy is open-source peer-production to create new public assets

Business success and ethical responsibility can go together, Simon Zadek of AccountAbility tells Tony Curzon Price. Listen now

Marcus J Gilroy-Ware is a proud citizen of Wikipedia. As openDemocracy continues its investigation into the power of peers, he describes what it is that motivates him and thousands of Wikipedians like him to contribute to the online peer-edited encyclopaedia.

The powerful distribution mechanisms of the networked world, particularly peer-to-peer file sharing, present a unique challenge to the rule of law. But at present no one will meet that challenge. While filesharers will not compromise on ultimate freedom, corporations cannot see past the bottom line. The result is bad news for posterity, writes Miriam Clinton

Experiments and innovations in public engagement with science have the potential to contribute to a more accountable science and a healthier democracy, writes James Wilsdon, head of science and innovation at the think-tank Demos.

Africans have learned to bypass the state and create multiple forms of horizontal, peer-to-peer association to advance their collective goals. Now they need to develop new forms of community that include the state and improve mutual accountability, says Chukwu-Emeka Chikezie.

“If trial by jury didn’t exist, we would never have the audacity to invent it” – but a yawning gap exists between democratic ideal and democratic practice. Ben Rogers investigates innovations that promise to shake up Britain's judicial system.

Can unmediated, massive-scale debate between peers in a networked society really change democratic practice? openDemocracy's Sarah Lindon sheds the skin of her role as forum moderator and draws on her experience to attempt a theory of democratic conversation.

Geoff Mulgan sees two ways in which organisational principles borrowed from the world of open source can make the political process more accountable. One is in turning democracy back into a conversation, the other in allowing the people to scrutinise public services. But, he warns, there still needs to be a recognisable place where the buck stops. Becky Hogge spoke to him.

Is the ultimate goal of media in a democracy to promote truth and accuracy or a diversity of views? And will the new panoply of subjective voices brought to traditional media by citizen journalism clear or cloud the issue? John Lloyd poses some difficult questions, as openDemocracy continues its investigation into accountability in the 21st century.

The age of the internet has brought with it exciting, fresh ideas about the disintermediation of power and peer accountability. But who is responsible for the standards and functions of the network itself? Bill Thompson charts the history of internet governance, reflects on what has been lost as accountability passes from the hands of the geeks to those of the politicians and lawyers, and offers his proposal for redressing the democratic deficit.

Simon Zadek, chief executive of AccountAbility, introduces a new debate on openDemocracy that explores a new generation of accountability mechanisms focussed on the horizontal, not the hierarchical.