Commons Based Peer Production Methodology

Commons-based peer production is a term coined by Harvard Law School professor Yochai Benkler to describe a new model of 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 (and often, but not always, without or with decentralized financial compensation) (Wikipedia).  In other words when people collaborate on social media, the action of the individuals produces something new, which adds value to the people.  Benkler defines Peer Production as sharing resources and outputs among widely distributed, loosely connected individuals who cooperate with each other without relying on either market signals or managerial commands. 
An example is open source software products like Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, and the OpenOffice.org Suite.  Open source software is the most visible instance of commons-based peer production software development that depends on many individuals contributing to a common project who share their respective contributions without any single person owning the rights to the project or controlling the project.  Wikipedia is another example of this as many people can share their ideas on a topic.  However, commons based peer production is not always the best way to go.  Sometimes there may be topics that require a professional opinion and not a response from an average joe.  Topics such as health care like what medications work best for soft tissue injuries or a runny nose.  Also giving legal advice may not be the best opetion to take from a site like Wikipedia unless you know for sure the person giving it is a lawyer.  Taking information from a commons based peer production site like Wikipedia for example should be taken with cautious because you do not know the accuracy of it, and you do not want to rely on it and then you dig yourself deeper in a hole.  There are times when this methodology works well like if you're trying to fix your car and many people have had the same problem before, they post blogs or discussions to help you fix it by telling you what worked for them.  Overall, you just have to be mindful when using information found on the internet because like they teach you in school....Wikipedia is not always your best friend and you can't always rely on Google to get you the information you're looking for.