In fact, it's probably much more akin to democracy (which is "by the people" after all) than anything else. Far from being socialist, attractive motivations and incentives for participation in peer production systems must exist, even if sometimes it's not a direct paycheck. I'd go so far to say that virtually all online social systems are egalitarian and wisdom-of-the-majority. This is one of the biggest differences from economic socialism: Online communities and other networked social constructs are entirely opt-in from a contribution standpoint and won't last unless everyone is getting something from it, including the contributors.
However, most of the meaningful examples I see of next-generation business models that work successfully (Netflix Prize, Gold Corp, Innocentive) usually involve significant financial rewards. I think this is interesting and probably encouraging, even though I think truly shared IP and long-term residual returns from those holdings will ultimately be more valuable to most stakeholders than upfront pay.
Best,
Dion Hinchcliffe
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