Economics of Wikipedia
15 January 2011 at 11:47 am Peter G. Klein 1 comment
| Peter Klein |
Wikipedia turns ten today, as you’ve no doubt heard. Most Wikipedia content is recycled, so let me honor the subject by recycling an old O&M post: “Hayek and Wikipedia.” The relationship between the Wikipedia model and Hayek’s concept of dispersed, tacit knowledge, exploited through decentralized decision-making, is perhaps to obvious to note, but consider it noted. See also this Reason piece which emphasizes the Hayek connection. (Of course, in Hayek’s model, information is communicated and actions coordinated through changes in market prices, a feature absent from systems like Wikipedia.) You may also amuse yourself with other old O&M posts about tacit knowledge.
Entry filed under: - Klein -, Austrian Economics, Innovation, Institutions.
Organizations and Markets 
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Aidan | 17 January 2011 at 12:19 pm
Didn’t Hayek also argue that actions are coordinated and knowledge communicated by following rules? That is present for wikipedia and in fact much of the publicity around the problems with wikipedia flow from the struggle to settle on the appropriate rules?