Hey Edward,
I once heard a speaker who had been an academic, and decided to go into business. When he founded his company, he thought about how so many businesses never make it, but you almost never hear about Universities shutting down. With this in mind, he worked really hard to get the people in his business to feel the same things that people feel toward their University, and he felt that that was a big part of his success.
I think the big lesson that you could learn from Perlmonks for business is to figure out why so many people are willing to dedicate so much time and effort to this site, and try to create that feeling elsewhere.
Hays
