ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses the themes of openness and closure in Hesse's novel by way of a comparison with a contemporary cyberspatial knowledge community: the world of Wikipedia. Launched in 2001, Wikipedia is the best-known initiative of the Wikimedia Foundation, a not-for-profit organization, the aim of which is to provide easy access to information for people all over the world-free of charge and free of advertising. The chapter discusses the concept of the Glass Bead Game, as described by Hesse's narrator, and identifies some of key moments in the educational life of Joseph Knecht. It sketches some of the defining features of Wikipedia, concentrating on the nature of the knowledge-creation process, the ethos underpinning it, and the forms of participation enabled by it. The chapter compares the world of Hesse's Castalia with the rapidly evolving reality of Wikipedia and considers what these two examples of knowledge communities might have to teach people about openness and closure.
