Crowdsourcing

I really enjoyed reading the Introduction: The Dawn of the Human Network" in Crowdsourcing.  A few points mentioned really got me excited, as it is a topic I think about often: what motivates people. I was an Econ undergrad major, and most of the traditional economic models are based on the fact that humans make decisions based on their own self-interest.  Adam Smith famously wrote that, "It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer or the baker that we expect our dinner, but from their regard to their own self-interest."

Crowdsourcing contradicts this idea to some extent.  The introduction briefly touches on a study conducted by MIT that examined why programmers would donate their time to open source software projects.  The study found that the programmers were driven by a number of reasons including, "a desire to create something from which the larger community would benefit as well as the sheer joy of practicing a craft at which they excel."  When I am on Wikipedia I often find myself wondering who in their right mind would spend hours editing entries about nucleic acids or schizachyrium maritimum.

Crowdsourcing wasn't a term thrown around too often in 1776 when Wealth of Nations was first published, but I wonder what Mr. Smith would make of the topic if he were around today.