Burgess and Allen liked the Alloutdoors model, which allows for lots of unmediated, real-time cross-chat and debate.
"Most projects rely either on the co-operative or 'community benefit society' model, which allows community groups to raise finance for their schemes through community share offers".
Hertz's service is similar to Zipcar's model, which allows members to reserve cars and pick them up at neighborhood locations, paying a fee with gas and insurance included.
For her, US company Xoom's remittance model, which allows workers to use their money to pay for their families' bills back home, is ideal.
The Netherlands promotes a "1.5 jobs model," which allows men and women to work 75 percent of their regular hours when they have young children.
A handful of other Web-only broadcasters, including Radio SonicNet (radio.sonicnet.com), have adopted the Imagine Radio model, which allows listeners to design their own "stations," which will play only requested artists or desired song types.
The theory behind the company's model, which allows for much more multifaceted deals than this basic example suggests, comes from research by two economists, Geoffrey Miller of New York University and Robert H. Gertner of the University of Chicago.
The Financial Times, which helped to pioneer the metered-paywall model, which allows readers to read a certain number of stories a month before being charged, has gone further in this direction than any other major newspaper.
Hall has devised a far more sophisticated web-based model which allows people to take account of this effect, as well as factors such as exercise, to plot a more likely weight loss progression.
Kydd says London University's International Programmes distance learning model, which allows students to take courses over time and pay incrementally, makes it affordable for students from Africa who would otherwise never be able to take a degree.
Mr Jobs took a veiled swipe at Napster today when he said the company's subscription model, which allows users to download as many tracks as they like for £9.99 a month, was at odds with consumers' desire to own music.
