Architecture of participation

The phrase architecture of participation describes the nature of systems that are designed for user contribution, such as open source and Wikipedia itself. It was coined by Tim O'Reilly, who described it at length in a 2003 speech and later in several of his online writings.

The phrase has come to define one of the key elements of what's been called Web 2.0, which describes the collection of companies, technologies and projects that are designed around the culture and economics of openness.