produce what? production of information products
two characteristics
1. decentralization - instead of a central organizer
2. social cues and motivation instead of prices or
commands to motivate and coordinate actions.
three structural attributes
gain over market and firm
1. self-identification/self-selection for tasks that attract
and suits them (information gain)
2. The larger number of participants and the larger number of projects -
the higher probabilites than the best set of persons will be able to work on a project
where they will be most productive.
examples
GNU/Linux (software)
Wikipedia (content)
web search engines (yahoo and google) (information)
SETI@home, folding, filesharing, skype (distributed computing)
physical goods with excess capacity
Peer production is emerging as information
production due to four attributes
limitation
1. Communication and integration cost
2. "Grainularity issue" - fine grained contributions
3. Duplication of efforts - redundancy
Can be a good thing. Competition.
Still, too little practical research on CBPP
Usually exists in combination of market/firm
Why do people do it? Indirect awards.
extrinsic - enhancing reputation, developing human
capital and social networks
intrinsic - satisfying psychological needs, pleasure and
a sense of social belonging
How?
legal devices like GPL
social norms
technological constrains on "antisocial" behaviour
no organization costs,
no transaction costs
(except infrastructure: computers + network)
no "tradegy of the commons"
because peers non-rival
may be hierarchical ("onion model")?
redundancy
between projects
choose between patches
both synergy and competition
good for creativity
error correction
CBPP a "new" production model?
historically: no
ex: folk myths
first time in a global networked way
