This article was taken from the May 2011 issue of Wired
magazine. Be the first to read Wired's articles in print before
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Nowadays anyone can be an artist on Etsy
or a host on travel sites such as Crashpadder. The next step is to
connect people who need a skill or task done -- from pruning a tree
to designing a wedding invitation -- with those able to help.
Online marketplaces such as Skillpages make it possible to match
the "haves" with the "wants".
UK-based hyperlocal "bank" for borrowing "things" and sharing
skills. A typical post reads " Sushi expertise needed: I am organising a hen do for a friend
who is half-Japanese, and need
someone to teach us how to make sushi." Cofounder Sam Stephens, 31,
designed the platform to "bring communities together".
Community marketplace where you can learn anything. Its
cofounder, 29-year-old New Yorker Michael Karnjanaprakorn, believes the key to making
skill-sharing go mainstream is "convincing people they have
something valuable to teach others". Skillshare uses social networking to enable people to share their talents
Hyperlocal network to connect people based on their proximity,
so they can exchange services, skills and information. New
York-based founder Barbara Pantuso, 32, aims to address the problem
of people not knowing their neighbours. "A knock on the door can feel intimidating.
Technology provides a virtual knock on the door," says Pantuso.
Matches people who need a specific skill with people who have
that skill, in an environment where you can see mutual friends and
connections. More than 100,000 people from some 160 countries use
Skillpages. "People can tell the world what they're good at, then
get paid for it," says its CEO, Dublin-based Iain MacDonald,