Fixed price markets in everything

What do you get when you mix unemployment, frugal consumers and Internet boredom?

One possible answer — Fiverr.com, a site that allows you to buy and sell tasks for $5.

The "gigs," all fixed at $5, range from the silly to serious. Among them: sending a nice postcard from Paris, burning a small paper effigy of your enemy, offers for breakdancing lessons, Photoshopping monsters into your family photos, coining that nickname you never got in high school, balloon animal instruction via Skype and even the penning of Italian love songs.

There's a flurry of more practical microtasks, too: CSS microbugging, social marketing, resume revising and PowerPoint editing help.

The company takes one dollar of the five.  The full story is here and I thank Daniel Lippman for the pointer.  Also via Daniel, here is a story about robots teaching English in South Korea.