Chapter 08 · Finance, data & evidenceData, Technology & Verification Systems
Commons-based peer production
Definition
Commons-based peer production, a term coined by Yochai Benkler in work culminating in The Wealth of Networks (2006), describes decentralised collaboration in which contributors self-select tasks and produce shared outputs governed as a commons. Wikipedia and free and open-source software such as Linux are canonical examples.
References
Supports definition and framing.
Overview
What it means
Motivation is intrinsic and reputational rather than contractual; outputs are openly available rather than proprietary.
How it is used
The model informs open data, open science, open hardware and open sustainability-data initiatives, where shared knowledge goods are co-produced.
Why it matters
It demonstrates that critical knowledge infrastructure for sustainability can be produced collectively at scale outside markets.