Commons-based peer production Commons-based peer production is a
term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler. It
describes a new model of socio-economic production in which the
creative energy of large numbers of people is coordinated
(usually with the aid of the Internet) into large, meaningful
projects mostly without traditional hierarchical organization.
These projects are often, but not always, conceived without
financial compensation for contributors. The term is often used
interchangeably with the term social production. Yochai Benkler
contrasts commons-based peer production with firm production (in
which tasks are delegated based on a central decision-making
process) and market-based production (in which tagging different
prices to different tasks serves as an incentive to anyone
interested in performing a task). The term was first introduced
and described in Yochai Benkler's seminal paper "Coase's
Penguin, or Linux and the Nature of the Firm". Yochai Benkler's
2006 book, The Wealth of N