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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."
I would be surprised to see many takers for this scheme here. The IT job market is on the way up in Australia, we actually have a coding skills shortage. If you are thinking of getting involved, please look for a job instead.
"Bloody dole bludgers" is an Aussie slang phrase describing people on welfare ('the dole' here down under... not sure why we call it that) with no intention of trying to find a job.
And I agree... Bludgers is one of the coolest words ever :)
http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,15 083420%5E15306%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html
dole
n.
1. Charitable dispensation of goods, especially money, food, or clothing.
2. A share of money, food, or clothing that has been charitably given.
P Pronunciation Key (dl) 3. Chiefly British. The distribution by the government of relief payments to the unemployed; welfare.
Kids today are tyrants. They contradict their parent, gobble their food, and tyrannize their teachers. - Socrates 400 BC
Because they (the bosses) can see the quality of the work you've done for another project, so then they can pay you to do their project.
It's not like every possible piece of software in the world is an OSS project. Someone may want something different.
When they came for the communists, I said "He's next door. Take him away. Goddam commies."
It says over and over again that this is "volunteer" work, right? An OSS project can't exactly demand a certain number of programmer hours, can it? If people want to contribute, they do--and they get a check from the Aussie gov't, to boot. If they don't want to participate, they don't. They can make Access databases for their local church or boy scout troop, instead. It's essentially "volunteer" for an approved activity or get breached and have your benefits cut off. The requirements under mutual obligation are 15 hours a week. Not completing the required hours also would leave the participant open to be breeched.
I know that you're being funny, but in all seriousness the way to do it would probably be get it set up as a Work for the Dole project, by becoming a WftD sponsor. For it to satisfy requirements for Mutual Obligation in its own right - that would be more complex and it would pretty much need to be an official Government programme.
The other way to get ahead would be to apply for the project to apply for resources (i.e. money) through the Employment Innovation Fund. If it was accepted there, it would be a quick way of getting some official Government recognition and money behind it. Overall, it would go a long way if it could show that it had a training component as well as just extra experience for people who already know how to code.
In that case please contact SLUG or turn up to one of their meetings. The next meeting is on Friday, May 27 from 6:00pm to 9:30pm at the University of Technology, Broadway, Sydney. Once you are there, have a word to whoever seems to be running the show and they will point you to the relevant person to talk to.
It may have been modded up funny, but that is the unfortunate truth on how utterly painful it is to deal with Centrelink.
Lucky they give me money in return.
This OSS idea is the first time I've heard of people who have to "work for the dole" actually receiving beneficial tasks to getting a new job. The government likes to choose degrading jobs such as "paint this toilet until the paint bucket is empty." Not untily you've finished. If you finish and the buckets only half empty, guess what you're doing. You're repainting the wall.
You don't need to degrade dole workers. Sheeesh. Because those who make a career out of it, just won't care. Whereas those who honestly can't find a job, will hate the system even more.
No, ASAIK it can be anything related to an OSS project ie artwork, docs etc. Also the quality of the work is monitored by a 'mentor' who is responsible for signing off on the work contributed by the volunteer and any "bludgers" can be booted from the scheme.
I'm glad to see on their web site that the program is open for 'any Free Software'. If it ever turned into an arrangement where you had to work on the projects they suggested, I'd have a real problem with it. If you were an Aussie company and wanted some software developed on the cheap, you'd just fire all of your developers. They'd be forced by Centrelink onto the work for the dole scheme, and end up doing your software development for you at $4/hour or whatever the effective rate is for the 'mutual obligation' scheme.
The work for the dole system has lots of potential to be misused. It's a good thing we can trust our government to only ever do good things...
This is Australia we're talking about. I can only think of ONE shrink-wrapped product that's developed here that has made any impact. (MYOB)
Whereas I know for a fact that the developer of Webmin is an Aussie, as well as one of the key contributors to OpenSSL. Plus, a few others I've heard about.
Microsoft Australia is nothing but a marketing and publishing arm... no actual development is done here, AFAIK.
Plus, what with the Govt publishing guidelines on using OSS, I can't see it being a bad thing.
It's not that bad. I lasted 5 months on Newstart applying for jobs I had no qualifications for in order to make my quota. They didn't blink.
A guy I knew who had been on it for three years was placed in a voluntary position developing websites for a community organisation. He'd never done HTML in his life, but he was interested in computers.
Another friend who had dropped out of Uni also receieved funds to pay for textbooks and non-HECS fees to go back and finish her degree.
Centerlink does actually work, if you're willing to work too.
If they get qualified / talented people, they will try to find them jobs in their industry. It's only after being terminally unemployed and not doing anything about it that they start turning into job facists.
Centrelink is supposed to try and find you a position that matches your interests and skills
Common misperception here - all Centrelink really does is administer welfare payments. Services like putting you in an interesting Work for the Dole program or helping you find a job are done by other service providers, mainly Community Work Coordinators or Job Network members respectively.
Right... So are you saying I'm correct, or that the OP is correct? I honestly can't tell.
You are correct in that it isn't the OSS Project that sets the requirements on how many hours are required to fulfil mutual obligation requirements.
you left out samba...
what about rsync
- The dole, which I believe goes up the more kids you have.
- Childcare rebates (> 80%)
- Rent assistance
- Concession rates on just about everything.
- And if the other parent of the child(ren) is still alive and obeying the rules: (assuming full time care by the one parent) 18% of their GROSS income per child AFTER tax is taken out (I think it might be capped somewhere over 50%).
Meanwhile, the other parent has typically over 25% of their pay (including the tax free threshold) disappear in tax, and then of course paying 18% of their gross income per child to the one with custody...On a more unemployment oriented tack, while rental assistance is on offer to anyone going through a period of unemployment, there is absolutely no assistance to help pay off a mortgage, which can easily cost around the same on a weekly basis. The government really does try to support the destitute, while IMHO discriminating against would-be home owners...
Anyway, in the IT field, the opportunity for this sort of community service has got to be a blessing.
I'm not going to give any details on handouts to minority groups... other than that, have I missed anything?
Mutual Obligation (aka work for the dole) is a system where after a certain time on unemployment payments, (note: disability and old age pensions are also "welfare"), the recipient must either, volenteer for a govt approved position or enrol in govt approved education (the govt then counts you as a student so thier unemployment figures look better). If a recipient does not comply then payments are curtailed or cut off. The idea is to give you some basic skills to make you more employable, it is not intended as punishment for being out of work. As far as I know picking up rubbish is NOT an approved activity.
Community service is a system where a court orders a petty criminal to do something unpleasant, like picking up rubbish from the roadside. The idea is that work is more equitable than fines. If you screw it up the court can inflict further punishment (eg: jail time).
"Dole bludger" is a derogatory term for someone who recieves unemployment payments, commonly used by self-rightous morons, right-wing politicians and current affairs reporters. All of whom have never had the soul destroying experience of dealing with a Centerlink office.
Centerlink does not run the work-for-the-dole program it is simply there to fuck up your payments and conduct endless "interviews" where they ask the same questions over and over again (eg: Are you having sex with your flatmate?). The irony of Centerlink is that it keeps thousands of unemployable busy bodies off the dole by giving them the job of handing it out.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
But we are short on plumbers in the UK too. It seems to be down to a long term decline in people training in the "trades" due to these skills being looked down on by the growing middle class. They would rather push their children to go to Uni to study for a worthless degree in Media Studies or the like than learn a skill that would actually provide them with a good income (have you seem how much plumbers charge?)
I do not see why any young American would want to stay in America....Why not invest your future in a country where the wealth is shared more equally? Anyone with a tech or science degree and who is younger than 45 can move there.
eat shiat and bark at the moon