Demand growing for tech freelancers

Hi,

Software development is not a factory job and it requires a lot of creative thinking. When other industries (like the Hollywood) flourish leveraging freelance talent, why should the IT industry not do something similar? This economy is an opportunity for s/w dev to move towards such a model.

At 8KMiles, we realize the restrictions of contracting IT jobs over the internet (security, credibility, licensing, control etc) and have come with a unique solution to benefit SMB CIO’s. 8KMiles is building an online ecosystem of verified professionals and companies for outsourcing of software and other knowledge services completely over the internet. The 8KMiles ecosystem provides the people, hardware, software and tools required for outsourcing on-demand effectively enabling a no cap-ex model of “Software Development-as-a-Service”.

Cheers,
Paddy Raghavan
Co-Founder & Chief Evangelist

I agree with the author that this trend should be expected. At Rent a Coder we recently recorded $48 million in earnings by freelancers as this trend accelerates.

Ian Ippolito

Another challenging aspect of off shore software development is Intellectual Property Protection, How do you make sure your source code isn’t copied and stolen while working with remote developers? If your business depends on its source code intellectual property (IP) to compete and survive, then Skills Finder™ has a solution for you. By protecting your source code IP from
intentional or unintentional abuse (copying, pirating) no matter who is working on it --
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The freelancing trend will continue even when the job market recovers in a few years. It is not just limited to IT but product design will become even more important as companies look for differentiation. We recently launch myMuto (www.mymuto.com), a marketplace connecting companies with problems to global talents. We use a social interface with personalized profile. Come check us out!

I also agree with the author. Outsourcing IT projects is growing rapidly and with no apparent end in site. As more companies discover that this is a viable avenue to get their projects completed with, in most cases, a very low budget, they will turn to this option instead of hiring more on site staff. However, there is a lot to be said about having an actual person in a cubicle that you can go speak to when things are not working properly. This is the draw back. We recently used a company overseas to develop our website (www.workforbooks.com) and are very pleased with the results. However, when there are issues...and there always are, its a little difficult to find the urgency from our developers in India to correct them since the initial development contract has been completed and paid for. Just something to be aware of, but for the money saved, I suppose its worth the hassle.

Workforbooks.com is another exciting online marketplace for freelancers with an emphasis on college students. Its the only site that allots 2% of every transaction to help starving students across the nation. You search for, work on, and get paid for projects you choose and help College Students at the same time. If you have a child in college you can sponsor that child on any project and they earn 2% of the contracted amount that they can use to purchase text books and supplies. No other site does this! In my opinion, this is what makes www.WorkforBooks.com stand ahead of the rest.

James McClanahan
Founder/CEO
WorkforBooks.com