George ILIEV
A 2007 study estimates the value that bees and other pollinators create for farming at 153 billion euro. A more recent study shows that 84% of European crops are partially or entirely dependent on insect pollination. The former number alone equals around 0.3% of global GDP, but these significant statistics are rarely given due coverage in national and international GDP figures.
Economists have been noting in recent years that the IT revolution and the internet are not leading to increased productivity and increased output. "As early as 1987 Robert Solow, a growth theorist, had been asking why 'you can see the computer age everywhere but in the productivity statistics'." (The Economist. Jan 12, 2013. "Innovation Pessimism: Has the ideas machine broken down?") These macroeconomic studies omit the crucial role of knowledge pollination and cross fertilisation played by Wikipedia and the other volunteer-driven IT and online platforms: the Google search engine, blogs, the Linux operating system, etc. Volunteers contribute to the economy their time and skills in writing and editing Wikipedia articles even if these are not recorded in GDP statistics. Having all the world's information at your fingertips has a visible empirical impact on research, entrepreneurship and innovation, just as bees visibly produce honey.
Photo: Bee "on" the bonnet (Source: Wikipedia)
