http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/03/micro-labor-websites

The Rise Of Micro-Labor
On Point with Tom Ashbrook
Tuesday, April 3, 2012

New websites putting up small jobs for bid, or micro-labor, are on 
the rise. Clean my compost bin. Buy my dog food. Job-hungry Americans 
are bidding low. Where does this go?

A lot of Americans need work. A lot of Americans need work done. A 
raft of new web sites is hooking them up around specific tasks that 
need doing. You want a pile of sand moved. You post a picture of that 
pile online.

I bid for the work. I'll move that sand for thirty bucks. Or twenty. 
Or ten. Or five if I'm hungry enough. The upside: efficient 
connection of job and labor, and I make a buck. The downside: it's 
work, but not a job. And the low bid that wins can be very low indeed.

This hour, On Point: the new era of bidding for work online. How hot 
it is. How low it can go.

-Tom Ashbrook

Guests

Scott Kirsner, writes the weekly"Innovation Economy" column and blog 
for the Boston Globe and Boston.com.

Eric Koester, founder and chief marketing officer/chief operating 
officer of Zaarly, a peer-to-peer mobile start up that allows people 
to bid for goods and services.

Harley Shaiken, professor at U.C. Berkeley who specializes in labor 
and the global economy.

John Horton, staff economist at oDesk Corporation, a online global 
marketplace that helps people hire, manage and pay remote freelancers 
or teams.

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2012/04/03/micro-labor-websites

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