It's a novel idea, and you could almost say that's what GitHub (or open source in general). People donate their time and efforts, and in return they get to part

It's a novel idea, and you could almost say that's what GitHub (or open source in general). People donate their time and efforts, and in return they get to partake in the finished product. I'm not sure how well I see this working outside of the software world. I suppose people could do copywriting, legal, financial, art, design, etc etc for a project. But then you have to differentiate who's actually contributing meaningful results, who's just wasting time, who's causing more harm than good, etc etc.