In this chapter, we study the socioeconomic issues that can arise in distributed computing environments such as distributed and open, participatory sensing systems. Due to the decentralized nature of such systems, they present many challenges, some of which are equally socioeconomic and technical in essence. Three such major challenges arise in participatory sensing, one economic and two social. The economic problem is centered around the provision of incentives. How can participants be provided with incentives to ensure that they contribute to the system; that they provide sensed data when requested; and take part in various sensing activities?