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$4,400/Yr. Coders May Work On Dept. of Labor Project

Posted by kdawson on from the living-wage dept.

theodp writes "To power the Tools for America's Job Seekers Challenge, the US Department of Labor tapped IdeaScale, a subsidiary of Survey Analytics, which is headquartered in Seattle with satellite offices in Nasik, India and Auckland, NZ (PDF). According to the Federal Register (PDF), an Emergency OMB Review was requested to launch the joint initiative of the DOL, White House, and IdeaScale to help out unemployed US workers. A cached Monster.com ad seeks candidates to work on the development and maintenance of ideascale.com, but in India at an annual salary of Rs. 200,000 to 300,000 ($4,4000 to $6,600 US). BTW, an earlier White House-sponsored, IdeaScale-powered Open Government Brainstorm identified legalizing marijuana as one of the best ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness.'" There's no guarantee that Indian workers recruited by that Monster.com ad would work on US Department of Labor projects.

3 of 418 comments (clear)

  1. It's Worse Than You think! by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful
    Do you know that the servers the government purchased to run these have memor that's ... made in Taiwan! Where the average annual income for a factory worker is a paltry US$1,150.00 annually! And don't even get me started on where the plastic casings came for the keyboards, servers and mice that comprise these servers!

    I have this weird feeling that had they gone with American services for building these websites at 10x the cost of using IdeaScale, the Slashdot summary would have read about the absurdly high spending that the Department of Labor is wasting our tax dollars on and would have something about a cursory glance finding tons of companies willing to fullfill the work order for 1/10 what they spent. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. They picked the route that most CEOs today are picking and they saved us from more tax dollar expenditures. Pick your poison.

    And don't tell anybody but I think Obama's coffee mugs are ... MADE IN CHINA! Just like yours and mine! The horror!

    BTW, an earlier White House-sponsored, IdeaScale-powered Open Government Brainstorm identified legalizing marijuana as one of the best ways to 'strengthen our democracy and promote efficiency and effectiveness.

    So because IdeaScale built an application to spec for the White House (who shouldn't have paid for it if it didn't meet requirements) and a bunch of pothead hippies turned up in full force to get their message out loud and clear on it, it's IdeaScale's fault? I think you'd be better off blaming the concept of democracy or the buzzword 'crowd-sourcing' as this is just kind of evidence of a technology-based bias of the voices.

    You criticize the White House for doing something we all do then you blame the wonderful effects of democracy on a web application?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:It's Worse Than You think! by rotide · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree with most of what you said, but legalizing marijuana is not an idea only supported by "pothead hippies".

      I've never smoked _anything_, nor done any illegal drug in my life and I'm in full support of legalizing marijuana. I believe I'm not the only one out there either.

      Resources - Hemp is an awesome product all around (Paper, fabric, etc).
      Save money - Stop jailing people for negligible amounts of recreational marijuana (read: not for distribution).
      Save more money - Stop most of the ridiculous "war on drugs" and the exorbitant spending and manpower on the marijuana aspect of it.
      Make money - Taxation on marijuana just like cigarettes.

      Those are just a few tangible benefits.

      Only hippies support it indeed.

  2. Why So Flamebait, Chums? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What's with all the anti-administration flamebait recently? Yesterday, submitted as fact, were a set very dubious allegations that turned out to be false, surprising almost no-one. Today, we're supposed to get upset because an American company that also hires workers in India gets a contract to hire workers in America, and reprise the anger we felt when fratards overwhelmed a lackluster public response to an Obama administration suggestion box with their gormless suggestion to 'save the economy' by legalizing a plant that grows like a weed. What gives?