Uber.Com. AirBnB.Com. TaskRabbit.Com. What are these websites about, and why are they so controversial?

Let’s be clear: these websites, and others like them, are online hubs for what is best described as the emerging “freelance services industries.”  The service providers you find through these websites are most certainly feelancers,  not established corporate business owners or employees of other peoples’ companies.

Uber.Com, a San Francisco-based venture that matches people who need a ride from one end of a city to another with people who have cars and are willing to travel, is perhaps the most high profile of these entities.Visit the company’s website, download the app, and search for people who are ready right now to shuttle you about. If you want to be a freelance service provider, Uber.Com has a screening process whereby you can register to deliver transportation services. [Read more…]