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.

[1][2] 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".

[6] 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.

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.

[3][11] 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.

[3] Paul Youngquist, in his 2011 review for symploke, noted that the book is worthy to recommend "to anyone interested in the history of infotech and its new forms of collective agency".

[9] Olivia Auxier, writing a review for the International Journal of Communication in 2013, noted that "Reagle’s book is mostly descriptive but does offer some theoretical ideas about the issues Wikipedia faced early on and that it will continue to confront".

[11] Mayo Fuster Morell, in her 2013 review in the Information, Communication & Society, commended Reagle's book for pioneering the study of Wikipedia using an ethnographic approach, "particularly in terms of its cultural and historical specificity".