Launching at the Supernova conference Thursday: Ingenio's Ether, a service that handles the mechanics and finances of phone-based consulting. I got a preview of this service a few days ago from Ingenio cofounder Scott Faber.

Scott calls Ether an "eBay for services," but that doesn't explain what the service does, which is this: it gives experts (consultants, therapists, authors, and so on) a phone number they can give out to the public at large. Calls to that number are not immediately connected to the expert. Instead, the expert can define fees for a discussion, as well as acceptable times to make the connection. Once a caller passes through the gates of money and time, the Ether system calls both parties and connects them. Ether keeps 15 percent of the fee as a commission and passes the rest to the expert. There are no setup or subscription fees, so the service is free until it generates income.