I am new to STO so if this has been asked before I apologize- but will the economy be player driven?

As with most aspects of this game, there's really little to no information about it. All I could find was from here;

http://www.startrek-online.net/?page=guide

Economy

Star Trek: Online will include a basic credit and prestige based economy. The credit based economy, which will be modelled on the ‘Federation credit’, an entirely ‘electronic’ currency, will be used to control the transference of objects and items between players, but will not necessarily be the fundamental means of acquisition in the game, thanks to replication providing most basic items, and Starfleet sending you some more as you progress through the game which will improve your characters ability to perform his or her duty. The credit based economy will largely be built around aquiring luxury items, rather than necessary ones.

Prestige is earned mainly from completing missions, and the amount of prestige one earns from a mission will be measured by how many objectives a player completes successfully within a mission. While a player will obviously not have to pay their way through the ranks, or use up any of their credit allowance to purchase a starship, they will have to ‘spend’ their prestige points in these circumstances, although this is just one part of the equation in attaining ranks and starship commissions. Ultimately, prestige points can also be used to ‘purchase’ ship upgrades, the more favour a player has in terms of prestige, the more options he has to use it with. Prestige will not be transferable.

isnt the federation essentially communist, and not material possession based at all?

There're a lot of contradictions... humans seem to preach that but other federation members like the bolians are still referred to as having banks and casino's etc. As with most of the trek canon, it's messy.

The economy of Star Trek does seem to be one of an "ideal world" and so its specifics are not provided or I think even thought about; something of, "well it just works that way."  I think it was only in DS-9 that economics is really explored, whereas in other series and movies, money is a foreign concept.

So I would figure there is not going to be much an economy system, let alone player driven.  STO isn't about being a free-trader traveling in the dangerous neutral triangles of space.

Economy doesnt really have to involve money. It can involve other aspects of trading and payment. Perhaps people can trade Federation Points (cant think of a good name, the stuff u earn, like merit) for items, or trade minerals they find  in space (or ground) for items. Theres also that mention of some type of credit by the devs. Hopefully the economy will be player driven as I think those do the best, really makes the game feal like theres a community.

Anyways, as the Federation being a communist entity, not so.

Most likely it will be player driven, because as they mentioned it's mostly luxury items rather than necessary ones that will be moving. They also plan on having hobby/professions/trades whatever you want to call them, to perhaps supply the majority of luxury items, things you probably will use to decorate your room or clothing for off hours, maybe stuff for the holodeck.

Prestige will be used to purchase necessary upgrades for things like ships, and perhaps they will also use this as well instead of credits in obtaining needed upgrades(alien tech for ships, personal shields) from other players (if that option is present at all), rather than complicating things with credits in the mix.