Two social software products have emerged recently to support the arrival of fractional work.
Jyve Pro is a simple "Do it Yourself" solution for Experts and professionals which enables you to charge for your time over Skype on a per minute basis. Jyve handles everything else including call metering, call logging and automated billing. It uses Skype APIs for its telephony solution linking a running meter to payment via PayPal.
Ether says "We all have something valuable to say. Whether you're an accountant, a computer expert, a blogger, or a good gossiper, you can earn money selling what you say to others over the phone or through email."
JyvePro has a Wall Street bank using its software to enable clients to pay for access to its offshore team of research analysts. The big question is; has eBay bought Skype to enable people to buy and sell services as well as products? Or perhaps a Skype call as part of the transaction adds another dimension of verification for the buyer, and a means of combating rising levels of fraudulent eBay transactions?
Both these developments herald the arrival of fractional work. However, they have both yet to recognise that trusted intermediaries are the key to accelerating knowldege based work. Perhaps the best prediction on how the internet is giving rise to more rather than less intermediation is described by Sarkar, Butler and Steinfield in their paper Intermediaries and Cybermediaries: A Continuing Role for Mediating Players in the Electronic Marketplace.
So will we see the likes of MediaBistro, Pajama Nation and Gumtree (an eBay company, no less) becoming the next Manpower or Adecco? One possible extension of this is large companies using trusted intermediaries to source people on demand, where Alpine Access is well established and ki work still in its early stages of development.
In recruitment, is Monster missing a trick or will a young upstart redefine the way companies acquire talent and indeed re-use it when they're retired?
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