lol - this is a great idea!
You could partner with various freelance associations.

Well, TinapBeana, we meet again ;-)

Great idea. Editing is fun. ;-)

Nice idea. I can't tell you how many times I've lost interest in a blog because of too many typos.

Jay

ok, took the leap and turned this into a project. we'll see how much i can procrastinate on it now :D

Whats to stop this idea just creating a market of untrained editors in addition to the untrained writers?

@E115

great question!

the thought is to allow writers to choose what type of editor they would want. writers could invite anyone they know to log in and edit their work if they chose to do so. in this instance, writers would risk having an untrained editor (i.e. mom or their best friend) because they would not be using the pay service, and the website would be simply providing the collaborative platform and generating some ad revenue from the interface.

however, if a writer wanted a screened editor from the site to work with them, that would be a pay service.

in order to become an editor on the site there would be an initial screening/testing process against known documents, plus an ongoing audit type of situation where staff would review the documents recently worked on by editors to ensure they are up to par. having software that keeps track of each revision and suggestion made, in addition to whether or not the author chose to follow the suggestions made, would make this audit process much easier...

very kwel thought dear!
thumbs up!

Great idea! Would use it!

cool..

This could work especially well when an outsourced or e-lanced non-native-English speaker was hired to write an article in English. Your "free and fee" differentiations are good. I would use this service for sure. Anything that helps improve copy on the internet is a great thing!

Sounds like a writers workshop. The problem is motivating the editors - I'm not sure ad revenue would cover reasonable hourly pay. Eveyone wants to be a writer, but not always an editor.

...tsk i wonder if Legal doucment encoding and Medical transcripiton is next...

sounds like mass layoff but its cool!

Editorship can be an apprenticeship of sort...

Thanks for the feedback, all!

@davidwei:
You make a good point regarding paying editors. That's why there would be a 'free' use and a 'fee' use capability for the writers. If they want to have a site-screened editor work on their piece (rather than just having a friend join them online) they would pay for that service. The editor would make a cut off of that payment and some would come to the site, say 90-10 respectively. It could even be set-up so that editors establish their own rate-per-character fee and use that to bid for the job to edit a writer's work.

And you're right, it's much more 'glamorous' to be a writer versus an editor. But I've found that there are certain personality types who are really adept at editing, and it would be a matter of drawing those editors in. Keeping those types of editors would involve a feedback/rating system (think eBay) where writers rate the editor on their skill, speed in returning the work, willingness to work with the writer, etc. Higher ranked editors would float to the top.

@saigon
I'm seeing this as a way for writers to get some objective feedback regarding their work, and not just with regards to writing they do for the internet. I see it as applicable for offlie works too, like books, papers, reports, business plans, etc.

For instance, I'm formatting a book for a friend of mine who inadvertantly keeps changing the styles of the text, or even the text itself due to the way his word processor is set up. ARGH!!! Having a service like this online would have made it possible for him to upload his book and the two of us could meet online in real time to review the document, rather than meeting with the large paper print-outs he favors. I could use the site to make chages and mark it as a new revision, which would notify him to log on and review/approve the changes.

Check out these travel writers/editors working for inyourpocket.com who have set up their website at http://www.rentapocket.com

@Matthias:

I took a look at the site(s) and rentapocket.com doesn't appear to be going much anywhere (the domain registration was Created: 11-jan-2006 and the page still says "Rentapocket are currently on the road. A new website will be launched in the earlier part of 2007").

It also doesn't specify what their niche focus would be, and the only contact numbers given are for Asian and European enquiries...

I do agree that this idea isn't particularly original, but I think a quick implementation and a good feature set is what would make the site successful. Features like

* Offering one level of protection for the written document by preventing copy/paste (which is already doable).

* The ability to convert the original uploaded document to a PDF for annotation purposes (which already exists in an open source software written i believe in Java).

* The ability to save revisions of a document during the editing process and allow the writer to compare the existing version with the suggested revisions from the editor and decide whether to keep the change or the original text (and this functionality already exists in every chage comparison program available).

* Web conferencing capability (again already available in Open Source form) so writers and editors (or a group thereof) can get together and revise a document in real-time. There's even a web-based Open Source offering that allows groups of people to join together online and edit the same single document in real time and decide which of the submitted changes to accept or deny.

At ths point, the only real work (sigh) is finding a way to sew together 3 or 4 pieces of Open Source software into one very tight, web-based environment.

I'm not sure of the legalities - but once a written work is presented publicly (in whole and in full), then there is simply no publisher that will touch it since it is now considered "public domain". It doesn't matter if the site requires logins and passwords - it is open to the public. So your "advantage" is also your downfall. What you would need would be a signed legally binding NDA that would stand up in any court. You would need to formalize a contractor/contractee relationship with fees paid, before you could expect any form of protection. It still would not keep people from ripping the plot, idea or characters. "keep people from using cut and paste" ? Give me a break, there are a million ways around that, not to mention CTRL-PRINT_SCREEN being the easiest...

I'm currently working in a research lab in Switzerland; the language used is English - as it is throughout most of the scientific community - but for many of the researchers it's a second language at best. I've been asked to proof-read reports etc several times, so I'll second connorferster's comment about it being a useful service for non-native speakers.

I'm not sure the issue of work being in the public domain is a huge problem; as I see it, there would be a demand for editing on copy destined for websites, blogs, etc (and hence the public domain) anyway. Another major market would be communications of any kind, from internal memos and emails to job etc applications and beyond, and here the public domain issue doesn't enter the equation.