it is called cambrianhouse ! :)

Open Source? Cambrian House?

If they start handing us out points to add to their site/company, it would come close to your idea.

In response to the krapule and Julius .. It has not been done on the scope i am suggesting .. Yes, there is an overlap and full acknowledgement to Opensource and Cambrianhouse but they are either technology or Internet based project centric .. I am suggesting a business case that attracts and provides resources for projects and contracts that go way beyond these domains .. engineering, architectural design, product design, human resources, business modeling, media production, financial advice, legal advice, marketing, scientific research, technology etc. .. experts in all disciplines providing an all encompassing virtual resourced company providing the best resources for just about any task in any discipline not just computer technology platforms.

Ths Brain Bandwidth company would invite, quote and bill for consultancy and advisory type jobs, mentoring, specific projects requiring additional manpower or complete full scale projects .. a super contractor of the best brains that could be applied to small tasks right through to full business developments in all walks of life!

Financial reward for the Brain Bandwidth company would be in the form of normal billing models or for providing the best brains available the company could negotiate a profit share in the projects it gets involved in.

Great Idea... Brainsource for people by people. It will also boost exposure of talents and encourage carriers for many pro-active "thinkers".

Umm, here's a hint: Many of those occupations you mention require licensing in many parts of the world. Architecture, engineering, legal advice are all examples. Do you really think someone qualified to give legal advice wants to do it after he gets home from working at "the firm"? Why not just put in overtime at his real job?

The same goes for retired people. Retired people that want to work go out and find jobs. Problem solved.

In some domains, this plan does work. A teacher might play graphic artist at night. But if the transparency doesn't work on your PNG, that's not going to hurt anybody. If someone gives bad legal advice, that might. I would venture a guess that anyone who does want to find some "spare cycles" type of work can, if they only look.

(You might say instead that people could work through this system, and make *it* be their "real job"... But, same problem: How is this any better than their old "real job"? If the only difference is paying shares instead of wages, all you've done is added uncertainty.)

Dear tbutzon, i read your comment here with somewhat amusement as to why you are involved in the crowdsource concept at all? .. wouldn't you, in your terms of description, be better off working some overtime and not getting paid in shares? .. This is what crowdsource is all about, putting in some extra hours on projects for a royalty reward rather than just a few bucks an hour!

Again, looking wider than inside the box, the technical issues of whether a professional is licensed to operate in the region of a project does not preclude them for working on or offering advice to someone that is licensed to submit and review the work for that region. There are many consulting attorneys that consult in specialist law to practicing attorneys for example around the world; engineers that design and consult to locally registered engineering firms etc. etc.

Also, i envisage a model where there are many persons in each discipline not just one professional trying to apply him or herself across the world.

Also, to pick on one or two types of expertise that may not be suitable to play in this pool does by no means obviate the effectiveness of it in other disciplines.

Lastly, i personally know a few retired minds that do not want a "real job" as you call it but would like to share their lifes knowledge or keep active by doing some work at home for a couple of hours a day or more:)

I like the idea, but it sounds similar to ExpertExchange. Maybe this would be more project orientented though?

isn't this like innocentive.com?

NEIN yes it would be more diverse than ExpertExchange and more project focused .. but no harm in adding an expert resourced Q&A service to it:)

neieon .. inncocentive.com is a very narrowly focused service aimed at scientists and scientific research, this idea is much broader in scope .. but i like the fact that innocentive.com shows that there is a demand for this type of service:)

So if we are broader in scope we should have a much larger market opportunity:)

The best brains are always busy.. sorry..

http://www.timebanks.org...like this?