The Unemployed Working on OSS Projects

Roger_Explosion writes "In Australia the unemployed have to fulfill a 'mutual obligation' requirement in order to receive welfare payments. What this means is that recipients of welfare payments have to be involved in some sort of activity that improves their chances of finding employment. Until now this has included various types of community service and training and education programs. Recently an organisation called CommunityCode has been established to allow recipients to fulfill this requirement by contributing to OSS projects."

Comments

Bloody OSS Bludgers

[Timesprout]

Bludgers is such a great word

fine code

[hool5400]

Stoners and dole bludgers, what wonderful code they will create!

Re:fine code

[Anonymous Coward]

I bet they'll just write a bunch of slack ware.

Re:fine code

[Goat(---o---)See]

We mostly sit around and talk about cool software, but never write it. I've though about using two mouse cursors myself, probably using a MIDI keyboard as input for the second cursor's keyboard focus. I'm gonna do another bong hit and download the X.org source, man. How many muscles to remove a 1541 from a brown eye?

REDS!

[Jukashi]

What happens when the aussie economy does better with a legion of state sponsored oss programmers? Awesome!

Well..

[BrianGa]

Maybe they can hire some of our unemployed (pre-India) tech workers.

centrelink workers

[boron boy]

Great, I can imagine trying to explain this to the centrelink workers (the people to whom you have to prove your mutual obligation).

Centrelink: so what jobs have you applied for in the last two weeks?

You: None, but i've been working on CommunityCode.org doing OSS development.

Centrelink: what?

You: I've been doing free software work to get experience and stay a productive member of society.

Centrelink: That's all well and good but I've got a job available at a chicken slaughterhouse I think you should apply for.

Groan.

Re:centrelink workers

[Anonymous Coward]

That's all well and good but I've got a job available at a chicken slaughterhouse I think you should apply for.

Well that beats the pants off working for EA.

Re: chicken slaughterhouse jobs

[Col Bat Guano]

Are they that different?

I want you to get to the guts of this algorithm.
I want you to get to the guts of this...

Can you run that server headless?
Can you run that ... headless?

I've just found the shell!

Good Idea

[katana]

Because what's better than a nation of exiled convicts? A nation of unemployed construction workers writing libfetchporn 0.9, that's what.

OSS programmed by rejects?

[Balial]

It's the programmers that Microsoft rejects that will make OSS the best.

Almost like legal blackmail

[Lord Kano]

"You see sir, if you fire me, I'll still get paid to work on a FREE product that will compete with yours."

LK

Potential problem...

[Infinityis]

I can see it now...

1. OSS developers write custom management/accounting software for Welfare Program.
2. Welfare department welcomes cutomized management/accounting software with open arms (after all, they *sponsored* software).
3. OSS developers exploit a secret, built-in backdoor system
4. PROFIT!!!

No ???? needed

Code

[Phidoux]

if (unemployed) {
dole = dole * 2;
}
printPayslip();

Re:Sounds like a great idea

[Iron Sun]

I'm too damned tired to know which hemisphere's in charge

The story's about Australia, so the Southern Hemisphere, obviously.

Re:Sounds like a great idea

[mboverload]

Yeah, because we all know how well pale, 120 pound geeks clean streets in 100+ degree weather!

I thought that's just what programmers did....

[Myddrin]

Seriously, I've been laid off since Nov. 29th. (I start a new job on Monday...YAY!). But, I've been putting in 40-60 hour days everyday (with the exception of a few days when it was REALLY nice out).

Not only have a really made progress on GnosisLIMS (which I've been working on for years), but I was also able to create a useful tool for managing my email when I'm way from my desk (Flex-mn).

It was very useful for answering the standard "so what have you been doing during your time off other than watching TV" interview question.

Re:I thought that's just what programmers did....

[SComps]

But, I've been putting in 40-60 hour days everyday (with the exception of a few days when it was REALLY nice out).

Wow.. those are some SERIOUSLY long days. -.-

Re:you're kidding...

[Anonymous Coward]

Companies are experiencing a massive skills shortage over here at the moment...

Import American workers. There's certainly a surplus of skilled folks over here already, our corporate overlords keep bringing in even more, and many Americans would accept lower-than-average pay just to get out of the cesspool our country is becoming.

How many IBM Programmers are in Australia?

[lcsjk]

You could soon have an abundance of programmers to work on OSS.

Re:Sounds like a great idea

[IncarnadineConor]

God damnit you guys, shut up! This is my backup plan if I can't get a decent job as a coder and you guys go and blab about it on SLASHDOT of all places.

Re:Sounds like a great idea

[carlos_benj]

Apparently they need plumbers desparately...

In the US we tried a covert plan to lure young people into the plumbing trade. The whole rap/hip-hop movement was to condition them to wear their pants at half-staff thinking that this would make for an easy transition and causing them to identify with those they dressed like.

The plan has utterly failed though. Now the plumbers' rates are sky-high so that they might be able to purchase plenty of BLING to wear after hours. We think the key factor in subverting our effort was the introduction of boxers to the youngsters from other factions. If the trend continues, plumbers will be wearing them soon as well.