DialaBrain - another fad?

[CereBr0]

Sorry for the late reply; Rupe's moving between houses at the moment. Also, I work for DIALaBRAIN as well.

I haven't looked at DaB to see exactly how it works (I'd like Rupe to reply if the mods will allow it) but I often thought that something a bit like StackOverflow but paid would be useful. Not exactly like SO, but often you want a sample "how do I use this API" or "what is a formula to do X" or "I don't really understand this concept, one hour to speak/IM someone to explain it in a tutoring setup would be nice"

£50 for an hour of someone's time to walk me through something could be well worth it rather than trawling tutorials or trying to piece together different bits of the puzzle from the official docs.

You raise a good point. SO is a good platform that allows users to get answers for generic and specific questions easily. However, text, IMs, non-interactive tutorials, and such only go so far.

while SO is genuinely brilliant, any question that can't be given a definite answer is deleted. There is no place for discussion or "what ways could I do X?" only "how should I do X?"

Part of the rationale for our business came from the difficulty of finding specific answers and getting a response to any follow up questions raised in a timely fashion. We feel that real-time interaction is the critical missing component.

I hope this answers your question whilst adhering to this forum's T&Cs

[d000hg]

Is that what ExpertSexChange.com was all about?

Sites like StackOverflow killed that off but sadly I also see them killing off topic-specific forums and discussion boards. Which is a shame because while SO is genuinely brilliant, any question that can't be given a definite answer is deleted. There is no place for discussion or "what ways could I do X?" only "how should I do X?"

[northernladuk]

£50 for an hour of someone's time to walk me through something could be well worth it rather than trawling tutorials or trying to piece together different bits of the puzzle from the official docs.

I would like to see the look on my missus face when I tell her I am now also being paid £50 an hour to help people out!

[Sausage Surprise]

If anyone wants advice on contracting, then send me a message. (£100 an hour or part thereof)

[d000hg]

I haven't looked at DaB to see exactly how it works (I'd like Rupe to reply if the mods will allow it) but I often thought that something a bit like StackOverflow but paid would be useful. Not exactly like SO, but often you want a sample "how do I use this API" or "what is a formula to do X" or "I don't really understand this concept, one hour to speak/IM someone to explain it in a tutoring setup would be nice"

£50 for an hour of someone's time to walk me through something could be well worth it rather than trawling tutorials or trying to piece together different bits of the puzzle from the official docs.

[cojak]

DialaBrain - another fad?

I have allowed Rupe's posts through as the right to reply.

I will also ask him to read the T&Cs of this forum regarding blatant advertising.

[Rupe]

Feature Request?

minimum commitment or a retainer along with guaranteed rates.

Craig, I forgot to say that fees are guaranteed. As for the rest, we will treat it as a feature request and add it to our pipeline.

[Rupe]

DIALaBRAIN is not fully launched yet.

In the interest of clarity, I work for DIALaBRAIN.

No one has found work on the site yet as the site is not yet open for business. That is about two weeks away. The site is in the process of loading consultants.

As to the remark that site's like ours are often a "race to the bottom". On DIALaBRAIN there is no such auction process, it is not a case of the lowest bid wins - there is no bidding. The clients select based on price and are then set up with a web conference between themselves and their service provider. The site is designed for repeat business, so that professionals can have meetings with existing and new clients without the need to travel.

Steve and Craig, the current average fee is £103 per hour. There are minimum and maximum fee rates depending on discipline.

The site is quite different to PPH. Our site is aimed at individual professionals and companies, serving existing and new clients with live interactive consultancy. We are not stopping part time consultants joining, but our main focus will be on companies as both the clients and service providers.

Sorry about the Bug, there are always teething problems. Please let us know what the issue was. It may already have been resolved.

[craig1]

They're only useful if there's a minimum commitment or a retainer along with guaranteed rates. If they won't give you a retainer or commitment on rates then it's very highly likely to be, as mentioned above, bargain basement work.

[DirtyDog]

Is it any different from people per hour?

[MPwannadecentincome]

I have just come across w ww.dialabrain.com having seen a recommendation for it from the Institute of Interim Managers. It seems targeted at the very short term / part-time "by the hour" assignments.

Have any other PM types on this board come across it? Had any clients through it?

It must be quite new, I already found a bug on it whilst creating a profile.