Swoponomics – Recession 2.0!

swaponomics
Here is a really great idea I just had to share with you. lets face it we are all totally head-melted with the recession ebign shoved down our throats, but here is a website that takes a positive turn to it.
www.swoponomics.com is a new Irish barter/trade exchange website. It provide a community where services and goods which you already possess can be ‘swopped’ with people who have services or goods you need. For example, take a solicitor who needs some painting done and a painter who needs some legal work carried out, Swop-o-nomics gives them the forum to find each other and get things done, without spending a cent.

There are many benefits of a service like this, especially in the current economic climate. With unemployment rising, many skilled people are finding themselves time rich but cash poor. With our service your time and skills are your payment so cash doesn’t need to change hands at all. Businesses can even get in on the action by providing their goods as payment for services, helping them lower costs and promote themselves. How about a new restaurant offering a few free meals to an accountant who helped them file tax returns? The possibilities are endless.

As well as these opportunities to swop goods and services, the site also has an Ideas Exchange which hopes to connect entrepreneurs with mentors and experienced individuals who are looking to get involved in new start-ups.

The name I’m sure is a pun on the popular Book “Freakonomics” – which is a favourite of mine. I think this site has great potential as really exchanging people’s skills and trades is somewhat of a lost art. I’ve always believed that web 2.0 technologies is bringing back some of the almost lost human interaction via the medium of technology.

I’ll have to put a few of my own posts up and see how it goes!

My Favorite Tech Blogs and Websites

I like to keep up to date on what is going on the interweb, specifically the “Web 2.0” type companies, new ventures on Web Applications and the likes of what Google and Facebook are planning.

If you have an interest in these too, here are a few sites I recommend:

http://www.ReadWriteWeb.com
http://www.TechCrunch.com
http://www.ArsTechnica.com
http://www.Mashable.com
http://news.cnet.com

If you have any favourites that are not listed here please let me know!

The Battle of Google Vs Wikipedia

A few months ago Google announced on their blog, their newest venture entitled “Google Knowledge” or “Knol” for short. Basically they are going to create something quite similar to Wikipedia, but it will differ because each knol article will be written by a single author, and other users can edit it only with permission from the author. Readers may rate or comment on the articles. There can also be multiple articles for the same topic, each written by a different author.

 

In response to this, it seems that today Wikipedia’s founder Jimmy Wales has launched a search engine that takes a leaf out of the Wikipedia book. It’s called Wikia. The site still has an index of the web like Google, but the idea behind this is that they take from the expertise and knowledge of the Wikia community, to give you better and more relative search results. I’ve always thought that somehting like this would be a good idea. I’m sick of search results being the battle of who’s designers are better at SEO – rather than which sites are going to give you the information you need.

A comedian with a serious message

I recently stumbled across a British Comedian and Political Commentator called Pat Condell. His website starts off with a fantastic introduction “Hi, I’m Pat Condell. I don’t respect your beliefs and I don’t care if you’re offended. Cheers” which sets it off nicely for what’s coming up.

Pat is an avid atheist and has some remarkably interesting thoughts on modern day religion, especial Islam. He has a travelling comedy show, but is much better known for his collection of short clips on Youtube and Liveleak which spark huge amounts of controversy, resulting in spin off rebuttle video’s and he has even recieved Death Threats!

I think this is a fantastic example of how one person can use the Internet to really spread their message to great effect, as his video’s have been seen my many millions around the world, and heads are turning…

There is a book currently high in the bestsellers lists called “The God Delusion” which supports the Creationist views