awesome work by the Science Exchange Dev team. look for some upcoming blog posts about the experience redesigning the core order experience in Ember.js.
There are some funny quips here (like "#WhenIGraduate I'm going to work for McKinsey because the hours are better"), but I like how each is paired with a pretty sobering 'fact'. For instance I was surprised that a postdoc scientist makes roughly the same as a McDonalds Store Manager (~$39k).
We're already working in some non-bio areas (particularly materials and nanotechnology), but the plan is to expand our range of services to all scientific disciplines. We've previously had some projects in physics and engineering disciplines but, as you say, contracting is much less common in these fields so it is harder to find qualified providers (at least for now).
thanks (from a Science Exchange founder)! we also hope that the platform provides an alternative mechanism for raising research funds as well. why write a grant when you can perform an experiment/technique you're an expert at for another scientist... and get paid for it? i think of it as bootstrapping for science.
I made a $100 contribution (which gets the "talk science over a round of beer" reward) earlier this month. The researcher, Ethan Perlstein, is actually in the Bay Area at the moment... he reached out to me and we're having beers in Palo Alto this afternoon. If you've contributed to the project and are in Palo Alto feel free to join us for a chat / beers in the Science Exchange office (459 Hamilton Ave).
Some great quotes here:
"Outsourcing revolutionized the IT industry in the 1990s and 2000s and I believe outsourcing has the potential to revolutionize scientific research in the same way."
"Just think of how many more discoveries can be made when scientists are able to easily tap into the best resources. That’s what gets me excited!"
This is pretty radical stuff!
Impressive for such a short amount of time. I really like the simplicity (no signup / sign in) and that it is so easy to collaborate. If you want to expand further you should check out some of the functionality used in WorkFlowy (e.g. complete, reorder).