In the new economy, knowledge is currency, and Bethlehem-based startup SPINACT has devised an online marketplace for companies that need to update employee skills and knowledge on a regular basis.
 
SPINACT's Knowledge as a Service (KaaS) allows companies to purchase "knowledge content" they need online through subscriptions and individual courses provided by "knowledge producers."
 
In other words, SPINACT is launching an online marketplace where knowledge producers and knowledge consumers can interact with each other. For the price of a subscription, companies get the skills and training they need to stay competitive, and content producers get paid royalties when companies access their material.
 
The company refers to this as an "ecosystem for information transfer" and believes that companies that need consistently to train employees--in say, new software programs--will be drawn to SPINACT's method over more costly traditional methods like sending employees to training classes. It works like this: A content producer uploads a training video or other materials for, say, CAD or SAP software, and a subscriber company would then have access to this knowledge for the price of a subscription.
 
SPINACT will be launching a beta version of its Knowledge Marketplace in February 2009.