FLOSS and the economic nature of talent

Ben Hyde makes an interesting point by talking about talent as a resource pool and the economic nature of talent (at least I think this issue is implied if not overtly stated).  Talent without skill and exercise, I think he argues, decays and loses all value  - and Open Source may be a "market" whereby the "talent resource" can find a sustainable way of addressing market imbalances in its acquisition (usually and unfortunately the labor market and hiring tries to do this on the software profession through the context of purchasing skills)

Ascription is an Anathema to any Enthusiasm Blog Archive  Sharing as exercise

The resource that drives open source is talent so the question naturally arises at this point does this model have something to say about sharing around the creation of these knowledge pools?

Some issues come to mind - First that for a certain type of worker or type of work, working, has benefits beyond remediation - it is its own reward.

Second, that the recognition of the seemingly ancillary effects of work, can lead to the formation of new economies, for which capital is a poor metric. 

Thirdly, that our current job markets are really quite poor at recognizing and creating valuations for the distinction between the purchase of a skill, and the ability to match talent with interest to maximize economic effects.

Adopting an open source strategy as a company ought to take this into account.  Having mechanisms that allow for for  "talent markets" (oh cringe that sounds like management consulting speak ;P) to be accessible at many levels ought to be increasingly important because it reframes the the employee, employer, open source contract.  I think this will be increasingly important for the future of work.