German Wikipedia introduces incentive scheme
Until now, the only rewards Wikipedia contributors have received have been the positive feelings that altruism generates and the admiration of their peers. That may all be changing on the German Wikipedia, which has introduced a system whereby people may offer a bounty to encourage the creation or improvement of articles.
The German word for bounty, kopfgeld, literally means 'head money', but the scheme is more likely, say its proponents, to involve the transfer of a small gift such as a CD or a book. Examples of offers so far have included drinks at a forthcoming Wikipedia meetup in return for articles on streets in Berlin, a free weekend on a South Tyrolean farm for an article on the municipality of Sexten, and the altogether less materialistic offer of a good article on the Oslo T-bane metro in return for five good pictures of the T-bane uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons.
A number of German blogs and media sites have noted the appearance of this system, which has already been credited with the creation or improvement of several articles. In several cases the 'exchange' has been more in the nature of one article for another, without needing a transaction outside of Wikipedia. These share some common aspects with the game of using WikiMoney (now largely defunct), but the idea appears to be taken more seriously this time.