There is a fundamental approach that has not been tried as yet - Incentives The real-world has that figured out long ago. If you find something that is truly

There is a fundamental approach that has not been tried as yet - Incentives The real-world has that figured out long ago. If you find something that is truly useful & timely, you would be willing to pay real money for it. Google Answers (answers.google.com) had tried an approach wherein a price can be put on a question and any legit reply which answers that q can claim it. 'Reputation' definitely still plays a role in this, but the system is flexible enough to allow a new comer to attempt answering a question & stake a claim to the funds. The real-world has many of these aspects sorted out, like calling a plumber or a carpenter from your neighborhood to get your work done. The problem is we have embarked on creating a 'global' network (aka FB) without first having adequately understood how to create strong family & community network, before we go global with our social networking..