Skype an Expert

From Intelligent Designs

A categorized real-time directory with experts who are online and available at any given time for a number of different topics. Some of them may offer their services for free, others may use PayPal. You could sort experts by price, by rating or by other criteria. The backend would have to use Skype's API to detect whether registered users are online (is that possible?). It would be cool to also see if a given expert is taking another call, and for how long they have been doing so.

The website operating this social network could make money by mediating payments, or simply through advertising, directory placement, or a subscription model.

It would be an interesting challenge to outsource call center support to such a decentralized expert network. Those interested in doing so could offer information packages about their products to would-be supporters and get cheap or even free support staff from all over the planet. From a user's point of view, the availability indicators and ratings would give additional transparency.