Abstract
At first glance, the investigative online platform Wikileaks.org and public service platforms like data.gov or its British counterpart data.gov.uk do not have too much in common. After gaining worldwide attention by revealing confidential military documents, Wikileaks.org quickly seemed to be trapped in an internal struggle against head-of-operation Julian Assange; on the other hand, E-Government websites were only attractive for a small number of computer-savvy bureaucrats. Taking into account the construction principles of both platform types, a broad set of interesting parallels comes to sight: Wikileaks and “open data”-projects release large sets of information, either as an “act of investigation” or by “controlled leaking”. Assessing these platforms as “participatory publics” (“Gestaltungsöffentlichkeiten”) hints to the development of innovative constellations and potentials within processes of political and societal consulting. A comparative perspective leads to paradoxical results: while government-driven platforms may be conceptualized as a rather open process of societal consultation, the efforts of Wikileaks reveal elements of interventionist behavior, merely disguised as political advisory service.
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