HN Time Bartering
It'd be cool to have a barter board where people can trade time/tasks in their own area of expertise for an area of expertise that they need but would rather not pay for.
It might be too clunky to be practical, but in building web apps, where many tasks have a clearly defined "delivery" and there is a history of entrusting tasks to hired developers, it could work.
Another thing it'd be good for is seeking very personalized advice in a specific niche. Maybe that's an even better use? For people to list their areas of expertise that they're willing to advise others on, along with qualifications?
For me, it'd probably be something like:
HAVE: -real estate investment experience, especially pertaining to foreclosures(2 years experience, 20 properties bought at auction, 12 sold, 2 rentals)
NEED: -legal advice on offering seller financing
5 comments
[ 0.20 ms ] story [ 22.3 ms ] threadHere it is: http://pickupon.com/
(Also, if anyone does see this, let me know if it is "Ask HN" quality.)
It's simply a resource exchange tool where you input haves and wants and we output a set of matches of mutual relevancy, where each user "picks" from predefined item/skill options users set.
The types of uses are many but for clarity's sake: barter, share, product testing, borrow, and various types of skill exchange.
I apologize for my glaring lack of bravado or salesmanship. However, on the other hand, the service is free.
I'm not a lawyer, and you'd need to talk to one. But my belief is that if it operated like the current systems, where helping people got you an informal 'reputation boost' and people with good reputations are more likely to get help when they ask for it, the irs wouldn't come after you, because it looks very different from any kind of economic exchange.
Now, I don't know how far you could take the reputation points. could you make actual tradeable carma? would the irs come then? I'm not a lawyer, I don't know. But I'm pretty sure that if you stick to the existing carma/reputation type systems where you get points, formally or informally for helping people, they won't come after you.
eh, I think building cultural norms (and a way of 'keeping score' without being so formal as to arouse the ire of the IRS.) is more important than the technical problem of matching claimed skills.
I think the problem is partially solved by public mailing lists, or things like stackoverflow... people gain a certain reputation. and when someone with a good reputation asks for help, they're more likely to get it.
The problem with all current systems is that they are very focused on one niche. you have your SysAdmin lists, your programmer lists, your designer lists, etc... and a good reputation on one does not always carry to others, which is what needs to happen. I want to, say, give some SysAdmin advice/help and get some design advice/help.
So how would we start an 'open help community' for a wider audience? a community with both SysAdmins and Designers, for instance?
at that point, you have a bigger problem with reputation. Lots of people will give you advice outside of their area of expertise. For instance, I'm a pretty good sysadmin, at least when you care about money. But I'm happy to also ladle out business advice, an area where I have a pretty trivial amount of experience, and not very much success. And look at this post! I'm handing out legal advice, even though I'm wholly unqualified to do that.
Your reputation system needs to be able to deal with that. Another complication is that informal reputations work really well on narrow focus lists. usually 'it takes one to known one.' - I don't know a good design when I see it. The vary thing that makes me bad at design makes it impossible for me to recognize a good designer. But I can spot a good sysadmin from a mile out. It's easy for me to tell between good sysadmin advice and bad sysadmin advice, even if the advice is somewhat above my level. I can tell if it "sounds right" and I know how to verify.