Fractional work and small slices of expertise

The Internet potentially offers a host of solutions to a couple of linked challenges: how do I use the enormous ability to connect to find answers to my problems ... and how do I make money by selling what I know online? Unfortunately the reality can be rather messy ... fruitless searches, lots of to-and-fro discussions by email, forum or blog, and uncertainty about whether or how to buy or sell expertise.
However, things are changing with a range of smart sites aimed at more focussed knowledge exchange and what  Leon Benjamin - the author of Winning by Sharing - calls in his book Fractional Work. In an update on his blog Leon wonders if Fractional Work is the next small thing and offers a great round-up of developments:

The video blogging web site Revver opens with the statement "What if creativity could pay the rent?". And JyvePro announces "Live access to people and what they know". Ether launched a while back with the strap line "Earn money, selling what you say". More recently, BitWine in similar vein, proposes that people can "Get straightforward Advice, Instructional Guidance or a Second Opinion, and talk to real people in real time".
Emerging behind the scenes is ki work (my favourite, and in which I have a personal interest) which if it receives funding, will adopt a profoundly more subtle approach to fractional work and should eclipse its nearest competitors, Elance, Guru, PajamaNation, Odesk and others. As always we lag behind in the UK, although ExpertSources is getting there. If its management team can be persuaded to embrace Web 2.0 technology it could quite easily become a de facto cybermediary for sourcing expert opinion in the UK by connecting media researchers to experts. At this time, none of these appear to have embraced or indeed undertstood the importance of reputation management and the dimension of trust it adds to user confidence. Several new entrants can provide the 'plug 'n' play' services they need, for example RapLeaf, Venyo (just launched) and iKarma.

After citing some statistics on the use of this type of service, Leon adds:

I'm convinced as stated in a previous post - Fractional Work Debuts, one of these intermediaries will become the new Manpower or Adecco except using a model that anticipates the maxim, "the unit of work is no longer a whole job".
In the UK Richard Tyrie, founder of JobsGoPublic, has developed a Ruby on Rails based platform branded as Slivers of Time, funded by no less than Her Majesty's Government, The Office of The Deputy Prime Minister. It is perhaps the most functionally rich web application for matching supply with sources of demand, I've seen to date and supports their proposition for employers;
"Employers input their needs, for example "3 people for 2 hours at lunchtime today", they see everyone who wants to do that specific booking ranked by reliability (reputation) and hourly rate. They can buy instantly."

Leon goes on to suggest how work in public and private sectors could be reshaped to offer people new opportunities, and also reduce workplace stress, concluding:

There must now surely be a case for corporations and government institutions to completely re-think the way they source, manage and contract with their 'human resources'. Everyone needs to realise that fractional work is not only economically viable for all parties, and that traditional models of employment are not only unproductive, but inhumane and in some cases, barbaric.

I think there are also enormous opportunities for nonprofits to adopt some of these online methods to share expertise within the sector, promote virtual volunteering and sell services. To see why, take a moment to visit the links that Leon offers.
Here's a couple of explorations in the nonprofit field:

• Using ICT for collaboration. Miles Maier summarises two reports
• The icollaborate blog where a group of Dutch practitioners are documenting their online collaboration experiences.

More generally about online collaboration:

• The Cooperation Commons blog
• Blog of Collective intelligence
• Online collaboration news - latest tools from Robin Good

Anyone know of other examples?

Technorati Tags: collaboration, nptechuk, snnonprofit, socialtech

Comments

[Leon Benjamin]

"I think there are also enormous opportunities for nonprofits to adopt some of these online methods to share expertise within the sector, promote virtual volunteering and sell services."

Actually non-profits have an edge because they have a cause, particularly voluntary non-profits where the nature of the participants tends to promote rather than inhibit collaboration and sharing. With some off-centred thinking and the application of social software, non-profits have the potential to evolve into movements.