Forums always have been big. It the online enabler for platform communication. I tend to believe that all great things online started out as fora. When it succeeded to build communication and a community around it, the potential was huge. Off course the ask-answer platforms evolved over time. From obscure topical forums over blogs to the Quora‘s of today. I don’t think this idea is revolutionary but could work additionally to the existing question/answers communities with a separate business model.
When you have people with questions, they look for answers. What if you provide answers in case one doesn’t want to search. Or the question is too difficult to be found in the myriad of the web? Any person can just ask their question while paying two cents. Any person that answers the question, and its answer gets approved receives 1ct. One can cash out at 1 euro, use it to post their questions or change them into miles and more.
The challenge is in the profiling of the people so the API will plug into existing networks like LinkedIn. By positioning itself as a plugin (cfr. Disqus), it connects human knowledge and facilitates a human p2p network on top of existing networks and services.