Valuable engaged networks of users can also be composed of suppliers. In many professions and careers, there is much upfront investment spent in putting together models and plans. Lawyers, consultants, bankers have precedents, teachers and professors have lesson plans, and coaches have playbooks.
Creating these precedent files, teaching plans, and playbooks tend to be more solitary than social. In a networked world, this presents a tremendous opportunity.
Like other types of information, this information is meant to be shared, with extraordinary benefits to all participants in these ecosystems. Consumers can mix and match better precedents and plans, improving the overall quality of such material in the marketplace. Sellers can monetize their investment and expertise. The net effect is to raise the overall quality of such material in the marketplace, to more quickly spread innovations, and to achieve time savings.
Teacherspayteachers is successfully doing this with lesson plans and other teaching tools. This article has a nice writeup of its history and performance. As the article concludes:
The most heartwarming part of the entire business is how it benefits everyone involved. Teachers are able to make some extra money, other teachers are given access to top-rated lesson plans, and students get the educational benefits from the best lessons available.
[...] is a useful model in the situation described in my recent post — professions that rely on models that evolve over time, where other members of the community [...]