I've been thinking about setting up a writers' and researchers' marketplace using the scriptlance engine. For research, Google's answers site takes us close to where I want to be, but there are some important limitations. First of all, answers are posted for everyone to see. Second, the number of "experts" has been limited (though this may change in the future). Some listings of writers and jobs exist, but they are just that, listings. I'd like to set up an auction and track buyer and seller experiences ala Amazon or eBay. Do you think that there is a market for this? Would you be interested in being a buyer or seller?
I'll give you an example. I happen to be interested in Ando Hiroshige - a Japanese woodblock artist from the Edo period in Japan. I'm interested in obtaining high quality, high resolution scans or photos of his work. One approach is to have them scanned from a book - several great Hiroshige collections are available. A better approach would be to get the original digital art from the book author or publisher. I would like to know how much this would cost compared to, say, hiring a professional or semi-professional photographer to photograph the prints in a museum. I might be interested in (1) having some research all this and tell me what to do, and (2) having someone write up and publish this research.
Update: Facinating. PR Newswire has a site called ProfNet which claims to unite sources and journalists. It is pretty exclusive though. As they say, "all experts registered in the ProfNet Database must be linked to a member PR professional or information officer who can vouch for their qualifications."
Posted by torque at December 3, 2004 11:27 PM | TrackBack