I currently work in a small office, and many ouf our projects needs to be done quickly, with whatever budget it takes, but often require specialized knowledge in one tiddy area. This often make us consider a lot of workaround to bypass the difficulty and IMHO the results are always looking like a ball of duct-tape.
I know that here, in the community, there is a lot of hardware / software capable folks who have various knowlegde and experience. Every time I tell myself: “I don’t have time to learn this!” I also tell myself “I’m sure someone at sparkfun knows how…”
Therefore, I want a “Project Bounty Hunter’s Den” place on this site.
Here is how I see it working:
A project is submitted with:
1- A torough description
2- A mesurable goal (Like to every input X it will do Y)
3- A Time limit (wich could be infinite)
4- A Bounty in cash
An exemple could be:
-We need to communicate on the serial bus of a LPC2101 based platform. We use Serial port 1 of the LPC, and need a snippet of code permitting to read and write data easily
-Goal: A small C code that will be compiled with [COMPILER] that sends “Hello world!” trough the port when the character “T” is received. Every register configuration must be documented in code.
-Time limit: december 5, 2006
-Bounty: 50$US
This would be a very simple and easy project. But someone who already has the said code working only need to put it together with some comments and cash in the 50$. Of course, bigger bounty means more attraction and a faster completion as people will want to be first to cash in.
There could be a list of “Interested Bounty Hunters” where people could signify their interest in the project. Hunters could then contact each other to team up if the project is a complex one. A small message board topic assosciated with the bounty could be the solution, as hunters could contact and discuss on it, or contact the proposer to ask questions or other feedback.
As for sparkfun, the way to turn this in a money machine is simple: As the hunters would hate to work and get a “I’m no longer interested” from the proposer, they need some security. Sparkfun could simply charge the bounty + 10% to list the bounty. So if a bounty is listed the cash is in the hands of Sparky.
The only real non-automated labor Sparkfun would need to do is conlfict resolution. It will happen that a hunter resolved the project, and the proposer will not want to pay asking for more of this and that. Then, Sparkfun would have to judge and tell Hunter of Proposer if the contract is indeed filled or not, and why, based on the various files received.
If the bounty is not reclaimed after the time limit, the proposer could get the choice of receiving a refund (of the bounty, not the 10% extra he paid), or get the chance to relist for a small fee.
What do you think pals? I have a lot of Bounty to offer, and I’m still seeking for an “Electronics / Embedded” place to offer them 
-Jay
PS: Sorry for the bad english, I’m a non-native speaker.