Editing The Impact of Peer Production on Information Economy

Title: The Impact of Peer Production on Information Economy

Abstract: This research explores the implications of peer production on the information economy. It expands upon the phenomenon of free or open source software and examines its parallels in various layers of communication, including content, relevance, accreditation, and value-added distribution. The study suggests that peer production is more efficient in acquiring and processing information about human capital available to contribute to a given information production project. It also discusses the incentives for contribution and the integration of various contributions into a finished product. The research concludes with policy implications for intellectual property law, highlighting the value of non-proprietary sectors and the cost of strong intellectual property rights.

Research Question: How does peer production impact the information economy, and what are its implications for intellectual property law?

Methodology: The study uses a combination of empirical and theoretical approaches to analyze the phenomenon of peer production. It examines various cases of peer-produced information and compares them with market-based or managerial processes. The research also discusses the incentives for contribution and the mechanisms for coordination and integration of various contributions.

Results: The research finds that peer production is more efficient in acquiring and processing information about human capital involved in information production. It also suggests that peer-production maps onto general understandings of the limitations of commons-based production and can be achieved through various mechanisms, including the reintroduction of some hierarchy, iterative peer production of integration, and technological clearance.

Implications: The study has significant policy implications for intellectual property law. It attenuates the value of strong rights by identifying an important, non-proprietary sector that is burdened by but does not benefit from these rights. It also highlights the cost of strong intellectual property rights, which is the loss of information that peer-production efforts generate. This loss represents a potential productive resource that is not utilized due to market-based and hierarchical information production being poor mechanisms for identifying and pooling human capital.

In conclusion, this research provides valuable insights into the role and impact of peer production on the information economy and its implications for intellectual property law. It offers a framework for further empirical studies into collaborative behavior, measurement, and comparison of the relative efficiency of peer and market-based production.

Link to Article: https://arxiv.org/abs/0109077v1
Authors: 
arXiv ID: 0109077v1

[[Category:Computer Science]]
[[Category:Production]]
[[Category:Peer]]
[[Category:Information]]
[[Category:It]]
[[Category:Research]]