how do we even begin to connect a web of interactive entities, gearing them up for mass collaboration?
We need a common goal. A working example: the huge particle physics collaborations of more than 3000 people. These do not have any blockchain, but they communicate entirely via e-mails, forums, etc... and get very well organized. I guess finding an attractive common goal is the key.
Concerning the problems you quote, the most important one consists definitely of laziness. I se it becoming more and more present over time within the younger guys (age 20 and around). There are exceptions, but those are far not the majority. This will have to be the main challenge to fight.
I'd be interested to see how particle physics collabs work out the mess, and you're right - the common goal is important. And discipline too! Were there cases that the collabs went totally out of control or dysfunctional? Perhaps because of human error, servers destroyed by fire, etc?
Oh about laziness. I think access to incentivized learning and collaborating will make a huge difference for "laziness". I've updated my text to clarify better, and will continue refining what I meant -
It is a monster. Let me try to describe it in a rough but understandable way (knowing that I am not an experimentalists and do not belong to any huge collaboration of more than 3000 people).
You have different groups focusing on different aspects (data analysis, data quality monitoring, data taking, etc.). Within each group, you have subgroups and within each subgroups, you have other groups. It is a kind of giant tree. At each leaf, if I can speak that way, you have responsible taking care of what is going one below them. And those are renewed regularly.
You also have teams taking care of transversal activities with respect to all leafs. For instance, each analysis group will produce a physics analysis note. Internal referees that have no connection with the analysis group are nominated (and a good number of them) to review the work. There is something like an editorial board, and a publication committee. Etc.
At the end, a lot of administration but it works well.
A bit late, but you may want to read this one. The scale is smaller (~400 people with a common goal) but the organisation is already non negligible. SVN has been used here. A blockchain could have worked too.
PS: you can go directly to the organisation section.