Howard Rheingold, author of many nice books about technology and communities has an active interest in this area. I know his group is busy doing work:
http://www.cooperationcommons.com/
Might be worth checking out from time to time.
The google group is pretty active also.
http://groups.google.ie/group/CooperationCommons?hl=en
Another aspect to Howard's work is here:
http://www.smartmobs.com/
Brian O' Hanlon