Micro-sourcing and micro-ISVs. By Bob Walsh
Every so often in the software industry a new idea that creates a whole new kind of software. I think we're on the verge of just such a new category: micro-sourcing. I define micro-sourcing as the ability to quickly and effortlessly access skilled services for specific micro-tasks from within a desktop or web application. Let me give you a couple of potential examples of micro-sourcing
- You’re working in your photo application like Adobe Elements.
There’s a photo you really would like to fix and all the “auto this” an
“auto that” commands are too much for you to deal with. So you click
the micro-source button and up pops a dialog where you offer to pay a
dollar for someone, anyone, to correct this photo. You click OK, and a
day later you have your corrected photo for approval and your account
is debited a buck. - You’re working in your RSS reader, or least trying to, but there’s
still too much information. You click your micro-source button and
offer five dollars a week for someone, somewhere, who will send you an
annotated e-mail of the RSS items that based on your discussion with
them you will find most useful and valuable. Think micro Virtual
Assistant. - You’re working at Microsoft Excel, and you’re trying to get a
spreadsheet to work right. Something is wrong but you just don’t know
what. So you click the micro-source button, enter your account number,
mark the spreadsheet to only go to a trusted and bonded expert, and in
a few hours they then tangled the mess you’ve made. - You’re working in the Microsoft Excel, and your company has signed
up with an online micro-sourcing provider who provides Excel expertise
from trusted consultants five minutes at a time. All you have to do
while in Excel is click a button, voice note what you’re trying to do,
click how much you think it’s worth and click OK.
If you think these are fanciful, if you think that micro-sourcing
isn’t going to happen, you might want to take a look at the following: … [MyMicroISV]