Two Microsoft research groups, Microsoft Research Asia and Microsoft Office Labs, have launched Task Market, an online marketplace for jobs that can be done on Office applications.
Like Elance, oDesk, and other piecework job sites, Task Market is a marketplace for people with skills and time--and those that need them.
Task Market is focused on very specific, and nontechnical jobs. At the moment, the only job categories allowed on the site are writing, editing, translation, and basic design. Why not programming or scripting or multimedia editing? Because, as the FAQ says, "By focusing on tasks accomplished using applications such as Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access, Task Market makes it quicker and easier for small businesses to get their job done."
Of course, Webware recommends Web-based productivity suites (like Google Docs) for team editing and collaboration, but there's as yet no marketplace service for Google like Task Market. Anybody want to build one?
Each job in Task Market has its own discussion thread, in which bidders for the job can communicate with the person who wants it done. There doesn't appear to be a way to contact individuals privately, though, which is odd. Users (both contractors and customers) get ratings--just like on eBay--once a task is complete.
Task Market is a simple and clear service for finding document-based tasks for hire.
Task Market lets employers specify the fee they're willing to pay for a job, and all payments go through eBay's PayPal.
Task Market's big benefit right now is that it is very simple to get into. It's easy to post a job, and it's easy to scan the available tasks. More mature services, such as oDesk, provide better job-tracking services, as well as more options for users to promote themselves and set up teams.
The site, still in "tech preview," and has few jobs on it.
Update: Agree2 CEO Pelle Braendgaard takes issue with my argument about the quality of the agreements on his service. Read his rebuttal here.
Agree2 is one part great service and one part really scary idea. It allows users to create, collaborate on, and digitally sign binding legal agreements. But it does nothing to ensure that the agreements are legally sound.
Good part first: with this service, you can either create a new agreement from scratch, or use a template on the service, and easily define the fields (such as the parties in the agreement or the monetary value of it) that can then be filled out by all parties to it. The "signing" is legally binding, CEO Pelle Braendgaard says, even in beta, in part because the service gathers a ton of "evidence" about users' interactions with an agreement.
Agreements can be modified before they are signed, and the service makes sure that all parties agree to edits (or edits of edits) before the contract is finalized.
Agree2 lets you legally agree to contracts online.
Technically, I have no beef with the service. I think it's pretty cool, actually. But although I'm not a lawyer and even though I hate trying to decipher legal agreements when I need to, the service's tacit encouragement to create my own non-lawyer-approved agreements scares the bejeezus out of me. Sure, I could write an agreement between me and someone I'm hiring to rewire my house. And if the contractor I'm working with were new, he or she might even sign it. But it would still, probably, be a crappy agreement. A court might agree that the electronic edits and signatures were binding, but that doesn't mean the agreement would be legally sound. Certainly it wouldn't be complete.
If you want to strike a less-formal agreement with someone--say a scope of work in the office, or a chore schedule in your family--Agree2 looks like good solution. For more serious agreements, get a lawyer. You can use Agree2 to iron out the details and collect the signatures, but for Pete's sake don't skimp on counsel at the start.
The service presents a chain of evidence for all edits and agreements made.
Bonus tidbit: The company eats its own dogfood. The terms of service, which you must sign before using the site, is built in Agree2, and you can modify it before you sign.
See also: Mumboe (Under the Radar coverage).
To get a signature recorded via fax, recipients must use the service's cover sheet. (image edited for clarity).
The Office 2.0 conference was set up almost entirely without paper (except for some checks that paid for sponsorships). Even the contracts necessary to set up the show were signed electronically, using EchoSign. There are other companies that provide services to create legally binding signatures, such as DocuSign (review), but EchoSign has simplicity going for it.
If you want to have a document "signed" electronically, EchoSign will convert it to a PDF, send it to your designated recipient, and give you the option to have it signed via a Web form, or with a pen, via fax. For e-signatures, the service confirms when the recipient opened the document and when they "signed" it with keystrokes on their computer; this transaction is actually a legally valid signature. Still, traditionalists might want to use the fax option, in which case EchoSign sends your recipient a PDF of your file, which they then print, sign, and fax to the number printed on a special cover sheet. This fax is then routed to your EchoSign account automatically. Whichever method you use, EchoSign keeps track of all your contracts and can remind you of which ones are pending signature.
The service also puts rudimentary workflow on top of your contracts, informing you of which ones still need to be signed.
The product does not confirm that the person who signed the document is who you intend it to be. It's an electronic record-keeping and workflow service, not a notary. But electronic signatures are more legal than you probably think, and much easier to manage than paper transactions.
If you only need to manage the odd contract from time to time, you probably don't need this product, which is $12.95 a month. But if managing and tracking contracts takes up a noticeable portion of your work time, EchoSign could probably get some of it back for you. There's also a version that integrates with SalesForce.com, which is great for salespeople.
The online service marketplace oDesk (previous oDesk coverage) has just added the capability for buyers to spec fixed-price jobs. Previously, all oDesk contracts were hourly. This move puts oDesk up against gig marketplaces like eLance and RentACoder, which are also based on fixed-price bids.
"The problem with the fixed price market is that it's not sticky," oDesk CEO Gary Swart told me. Many business relationships that start with one-price jobs evolve into working relationships where the pay is based on the time put in. Swart maintains that competing marketplaces don't foster (or let you manage) that changing relationship; and likewise, until now, oDesk wasn't able to kick off relationships that were best started as single gigs.
oDesk's toolkit, which includes the capability for service providers to "clock in," and for service buyers to monitor their work, is optional on fixed-price contracts.
The company will be presenting at the Web 2.0 Expo (which Webware is a media sponsor of), and also making a financial progress announcement.
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