incentive to participate?

[Erik Josefsson <ehj@ffii.org>]

In the paper ""Peer to Patent": Collective Intelligence and Intellectual 
Property Reform" by Beth Simone Noveck there is a Q&A section with a 
very good question:

Q:  *Isn’t there a lack of incentive to participate?*

The answer is not that convincing IMO, but maybe there is a vague 
promise of a bounty in the statement "we will build these incentives for 
participation into the system"?:

A: "To the contrary, in the patenting process the stakes are high and
   self-interest will motivate participation. For many the desire to
   ensure that unpatentable subject matter in their area of art does not
   pass muster, will further motivate involvement. We will build these
   incentives for participation into the system. First, the social
   reputation software creates an incentive to join the network of
   experts. We appeal to status and vanity to induce participation.
   Second, the system “chunks” the work so that assignments are modular
   and participation can be accomplished without an undue imposition on
   time. Third, more participation creates a feedback score which
   increases one’s standing in the community that is beneficial when the
   participant himself becomes an inventor filing for a patent. Standing
   in the community can only encourage serious and focused review by
   other members of the group. Finally, corporate managers have an
   incentive to encourage participation to learn more about the state of
   the art in the industry and to raise the standing of its scientists
   and experts in the innovation process."

   http://dotank.nyls.edu/communitypatent/P2Patent_Apr_2006.pdf

//Erik