Personal Offshoring

Personal offshoring has been done before - it was good form in the Russian Tsar's court to send shirts to Paris to be laundered - but what was once the the preserve of big business is now available for the individual. A combination of the internet and the universal acceptability of credit cards means that although you might not need a call centre, there are an increasing number of things that can be moved offshore that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive or outside one's skillset.

The first is computer code. The idea of hiring a programmer to make that little widget you are desperate for might seem decadent, but it is very good value for money and remarkably easy. I needed a selection of little programs to do things with my email. But I'd never had the time, or the patience, to write them myself. After a visit to RentACoder.com, I was able to file a request for bids from programmers around the world.

Guardian Unlimited | Online | Ben Hammersley: Swift and offshore

Hat tip: Kottke.