The internet phenomenon that is Wikipedia does not use “straightforward rewards” as the basis of its incentive system. Millions of people contribute to the online encyclopedia, but aren’t incentivized to do so through explicit reinforcement.

The rise of the network allows us to exploit the fact of human labor that long predates the Internet. The ability to divvy up an overwhelming task - such as the writing of an exhaustive encyclopedia - into small enough chunks that completing it becomes not only feasible, but fun.