Hi,<p>Sometimes I get stuck on a development problem or just want to ask someone. Sometimes, asking on stackoverflow and forums are not enough especially if you have to debug through the problem and show where the crash happens. However, someone experienced might point it out in an hour or two. Is there a service where I can pay a developer by the hour and remotely work out the issue?<p>If not, do you think that there is a market for a service like that?<p>Thanks!
I don't think there's a service like that, but let's attempt to talk through who could potentially use it to figure out if there's a market.<p>1) Would a developer who is part of a workforce in a company where there are other developers use this? Chances are, probably not - he has coworkers whom he could ask to help him work through a problem. This is more efficient than hiring outside help - his coworkers probably understand the codebase and the problem domain much better than he does.<p>2) Would a student developer in a school use this for his schoolwork? Chances are, probably not. Schools usually have tutors, and the instructor is usually available. Also, students are usually low on money to pay for services like this.<p>3) It sounds like you are what I call a "lone-wolf developer". You consult for projects as your main source of income for companies that don't have on-staff technical talent (otherwise you'd ask them), or are a single founder working on your own project (or, if you have cofounders they are completely non-technical). You would definitely use this service. How many people are there like this?<p>The reason why your post caught my eye is because I often find myself in the "mentor" role that you are describing, and have often wondered that question myself.
I think such a service would be great. Last night in the middle of a very long coding session I got stuck on getting a particular SQL query working right for a couple of hours. I got a little help and some hints in #mysql on freenode, but I eventually needed to work it out myself. When I come across an issue like this that blocks progress on the project I'm working on, I'd love to have a service where I can drop some cash on getting help from an expert when I need to find a solution quickly.
I think there is a niche market, yes. Just like there is a market for a paid twitter (app.net), there could be a market for paid for stackoverflow (just not something like experts-exchange).<p>I would call this "CTO for rent" or "tech lead by the hour"<p>note that there are many consulting companies that do exactly this, the thing is that they charge 100-200$ an hour.<p>I'm sure that in elance you can find someone willing to help for a nice reasonable fee.
I posted this a while ago asking a similar question <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4500567" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4500567</a><p>I considered it micro-consulting. The responses listed <a href="http://anyfu.com" rel="nofollow">http://anyfu.com</a> and <a href="http://clarity.fm" rel="nofollow">http://clarity.fm</a>
There is a site called www.glgroup.com where you can do initial consulting with the individual for free just to know them but if you want specifics then you have to hire them using various options available.