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Microsoft Taps PBS To Advance Its National Talent Strategy With 'Code Trip'
theodp writes: You don't have to be Mitt Romney to question PBS's announcement that it will air the Microsoft-funded 'reality' show Code Trip, in which Roadtrip Nation and Microsoft YouthSpark will send students across the U.S. for a "transformative journey into computer science." Of the partnership, Roadtrip Nation co-founder Mike Marriner said, "Roadtrip Nation is proud to partner with Microsoft's YouthSpark initiative not only to inform others of the many career routes one can take with a computer science background, but also to engage in the much-needed conversation of diversifying the tech field with more pluralistic perspectives." YouthSpark is part of Microsoft's National Talent Strategy (pdf), which the company describes as "a two-pronged approach that will couple long-term improvements in STEM education in the United States with targeted, short-term, high-skilled immigration reforms." The Official Microsoft Blog reports that filming of Code Trip began this week, with the three students traveling around the country to speak with leaders including Hadi Partovi, the co-founder of Code.org and 'major supporter' of FWD.us, who coincidentally once reported to Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, and is the next door neighbor of Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith and a jogging partner of Steve Ballmer.
This SOUNDS nice and good but it should be obvious that these education efforts are just here to flood the market with teenage programmers, which will depress our wages. We really need to get together (maybe as a union) and fight this effort to educate children. This is as bad as the H1-B programs!
The prices for engineers are quite high, and the PR cost in importing them is also quite high, so they're pouring money into education as a long-term investment in driving down the cost of developers in the future.
Heh, might as well.
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Yeah, right.
Exactly! That is why we need to join theodp IN THE QUEST TO ELIMINATE EDUCATION! #keepkidsignorant!
No one knows what the future will be like and what will the demands be for a profession. There was this cry of a shortage of nurses for years. And after the crash of '01 and '08, kids jumped into the 'safe' career of nursing because there was this shortage.
Today, the job market for nurses is the worst ever.
I see this push for STEM people creating a super glut in a few years. And employers will just make the standards even stricter - and still bitch how they can't get anyone "qualified".
I don't see the growth that warrants this push for STEM people other than to increase supply and lower salaries and demand even more hours from workers.
We need to get rid of being exempt from overtime. That's the other way salaries have been decreasing: increased time at the office.
2000: Making 80K working 40 hours a week.
2015: making 65K working 55+ hours a week.
Shortage my fucking ass. We're doing the work of 2 people these days - just because employers don't want to hire another person.
Oh! And the sideways insults - you know - if you can't get the job done in 40 hours then it's your fault because it's implied that you're stupid and maybe they should get someone smarter.
But if you get your work done in 40 or less, then you don't have enough work.
fuckers.
I hate this profession. You grow up loving CS and programming but the profession beats it out of you.
They're in dire need of better UX talent than they are of developer talent.
Exactly! That is why we need to join theodp IN THE QUEST TO ELIMINATE EDUCATION! #keepkidsignorant!
How is teaching them technology that is going to be obsolete by the time they are out of college keeping them ignorant.
In K-12, kids should be learning the basics. Their time would be MUCH better spent learning more math and science (and physical fitness!) than learning some programming language. And by math, that includes logic - basic CS. And from their, ANY language is just a question of learning syntax - something that can be done in a morning.
See, if MS were TRULY interested in educating our kids, they'd be pushing for teaching the fundamentals of CS. But they're not. They're pushing for the training of code monkeys.
There is plenty of fun stuff in computer science. Trying to make people like it because it's "a good job" sounds like a way to make people bored with it.
I became a programmer because I like programming. The fact that I can make money doing it is just a happy coincidence.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Spoiler alert!
The roadtrip will end in India.
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It will be interesting to see if the TV program has strong Microsoft product placement--like everyone using Windows phones and Surface computers.
I would contend that there is a shortage, but it is mostly for senior level people who may have some niche experience, which is true of almost any field. But for your run of the mill jobs, you don't necessarily need this. Most people, by definition, are average.
Oh, and companies don't get a free pass, either. Many of them what a top 1% coder for bottom 50% wages if at all possible.
Lastly, if there was such a shortage, we'd see companies hiring people that didn't have their "required" experience, but had a couple operational brain cells that could be coached up. I saw this during the dot-com boom.
That's like a 5-10 year plan. The messaging here is that Microsoft wants engineers from the US and wants people to become computer programmers, and they're doing "everything they can" to stimulate it, so just let us hire all the H1Bs we want this quarter. The messaging presents the premise that "there aren't enough engineers" in the US, thus H1Bs are justified today. "Maybe in the future" this situation will change, but for now we "have to" have "targeted, short term high-skill immigration reforms."
Nadella and the people involved might just love computer science and want to share it with the world, these things do happen.
Why are we supposed to question it, exactly? Is it some question of MS influencing PBS programming? That couldn't be it, considering how dependent PBS is on corporate sponsorship.
Is it that the program itself sounds sorta fluffy and probably won't reach a wide audience, but it'll be a boondoggle that MS can use for tax evasion, while getting the Center for Public Broadcasting and several charitable foundations to pay for what essentially Microsoft's public relations? Maybe.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Why involve Americans? So they can train their H1-B replacement in a few years?
How dare PBS save taxpayer money by airing something that another group paid for. We must punish them for this outrage by removing their funding!
also to engage in the much-needed conversation of diversifying the tech field with more pluralistic perspectives.
LOL yeah, why don't you try actually clicking that link and reading the comments. /. was totally fed up with this "much needed" agenda (and the spurious justifications for it) well over six months ago.
The biggest revelation in the summary is that Steve Ballmer JOGS?!
How on earth can you be that huge and JOG?
Hmm, I was thinking this was more like a marketing budget line item. The more Windows exposure, the more upgrades to Windows 10 (is the timing really a coincidence?). Nothing to do with thinking of the children, innovation, or long-term strategic personnel planning. That stuff was never in Microsoft's DNA.
They should have named it "Code Sweat" and used this music as the theme song:
https://youtu.be/CJ0p7k-KzWM
"I wake up...in a Code Sweat. Hah!"
Maceo, blow your horn.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Said no one, ever.
Roadtrip Nation is proud to partner with Microsoft's YouthSpark initiative not only to inform others of the many career routes one can take with a computer science background, but also to engage in the much-needed conversation of diversifying the tech field with more pluralistic perspectives.
If Microsoft came to my classroom today, they would find students perfectly content programming and running Linux servers. No MS software to be found, and career opportunities abound. My alumni are in very high demand.
Is that what is meant by "diversifying the tech field with more pluralistic perspectives"? Is that why Microsoft keeps laying off employees?
'diversifying the tech field with more pluralistic perspectives." .. "a two-pronged approach .. STEM education .. targeted, short-term, high-skilled immigration reforms."'
..
We want more H-1B visas
They must have an excess of resources *somewhere*. They offered to provide significant funding, UI, an development resources to assist with porting our app to Windows 10. Basically no one wants to bother supporting it, so they decided they need to do the support themselves...
Considering that they will likely be providing the hardware gratis then, yes - it is likely to be Microsoft products. Do you expect anything different? Do you have a good reason for expecting anything different or, really, even desiring anything different? Never let perfection get in the way of good.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Every single person I know, except me actually, has or is going to upgrade to Windows 10 or plans on using it with their next computer purchase. I have been asking local computer users this question for months and no, I have not been advising them to not do so but I have suggested that they keep an eye on their privacy settings. I am not sure what that is worth but it is not my job to change their minds. Let them use what makes them happy.
I do not know any local people who use Macs.
On the tablet scene a number of people I know are chomping at the bit to get a Surface. They want Windows 10 on it. So far none of them have done so, as far as I know. They all pretty much seem to have current tablets based on Android but are electing to go to Windows even at the added expense. They all seem hell bent on the Surface too. I do not know anything about the Surface but I understand it is pretty decent. As I will likely be called in to help maintain these things I should probably invest in one. I really dislike the form factor. I do like, however, the Motion hybrid tablets - I bought a couple of those back in the day. I have no idea what the Surface looks like, I have yet to see one in the wild or even an ad for one. I understand that they can have attached keyboards? Meh... I will figure it out.
Finally, a few people but only a few, are looking to get a Windows phone. From what I can tell they seem to like the idea of getting an app and having it work across their desktop, tablets, and phones. I see the value in that but I do not see how that applies to me. I will probably get a Windows phone and keep it activated for a few months to play with it. It depends on what is available for hardware more than anything else. Even my sister, a die-hard Android fanatic who has been doing all of her computing on a mobile phone (even writing a novel), is planning on getting a Windows phone.
I guess my point is that, well, I do not think that they need to advertise Windows 10. This may be PR work but I do not think they need increased awareness. Everyone already knows about it. The whole free upgrade seems to have people quite enthusiastic and willing to try it out. Myself? I am going to keep my MSDN subscription but I do not see any use for Windows 10 as a main OS at this time. It runs fine in a VM and I bought VMWare for a reason.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."
Coincidentally, Microsoft in 2008 launched its own Code Trip project, which it described as "a road trip, a bunch of developers cruising around in a tour bus and geeking out. It's also an online TV show (or video podcast, or vodcast, or whatever the kids call it nowadays) chronicling their adventures throughout the western United States." So, the Microsoft-funded, Roadtrip Nation-branded 2015 Code Trip PBS show looks like a remake of sorts of Microsoft's own 2008 Code Trip, albeit with a more diverse cast
From what I can tell they seem to like the idea of getting an app and having it work across their desktop, tablets, and phones.
Wasn't the Internet supposed to do this for us already?
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Seems unlikely unless you mean SaaS or Cloud stuff. People are still going to want devices to have software - hopefully. I am not a huge fan of turning the internet back into a bunch of dumb terminals renting out time.
KGIII - ran out of posts again... 50 is a piss poor limit when you are up smoking all night.
I was thinking more of the evolution of the Web browser from document viewer to (in theory) cross-OS/cross-device application platform.
(50? I've wondered about that. I think my posting limit must vary with the phases of the moon or something--seems to change without rhyme or reason.)
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
The Reps bend over backwards to cut even the little bit of public funding left that goes to PBS and then complain that PBS goes in with big corp for pushing a questionable agenda. Restore and increase public funding for PBS with NO STRINGS ATTACHED and get some real decent and independent programming....or stop whining. All the Reps can do is say no to everything and then complain that nothing works right. How about a constructive proposal once in a while? But that would require them to look at facts and think rather than blurt out right-wing tea bagger populist bar talk.
"Each student, selected for their interest in computer science as well as their unique background, will interview leaders in the field and gain the exposure and insights into a variety of career paths incorporating technology."
In other words let's select people who are unrepresentative of the typical make up of persons who are interested in computing - but hey, it's OK because we all know that men, especially white men, are bigots. By discriminating against men we are proving how virtuous we are, we may seem like bigots by our words and deeds but we're not the problem - it's everybody else(by everybody we mean white men of course).
WTF is the reference to Mitt Romney doing in the summary?