The current issue has two articles of interest: the NAFTA shortcomings and the IRS targeting executive compensation accounting. There's a third article on a gent who buys distressed industries and was able to re-open a steele mill because the workers agreed to work for just-below-union wages. I bet he buys an IT something or other and re-employs US IT workers at a percentage below what they formerly earned. It's an iPods tune waiting to be activated.
It would be kewl to know start and stop time, and total time, for the world class Linux developers. It's probably lost to history, but think how project management might be turned upside down, inside out, and for good purpose. It's done when it's done and accepted into the Linux kernel.
Lessee, did Dell actually check with anyone how specializes in language instruction? What is our success rate in America for improving American fluency for spoken, ad lib, English? Probably you could check the adult basic education classes for success rate, then factor in TESL success rates. Best of breed for a call center would be spontaneous, ad lib language fluency. For a second example, how successful has the FBI been in finding people who speak Middle Eastern languages? Fluency is probably not a Dale Carnegie course and 6, 12, or 18 weeks.
Why not let American IT workers order a coupla 1-800 numbers, advertise them, and staff their own call center. After Napster, Apple decided to sell songs for 99 cents, so staff an American English spoke here call center and compete on your own terms.
You know, when I first saw this article, I thought "wow, all IT workers in America who are out of work have banded together, pretending to be Dell customers, and have swamped the India call centers." It would make a good conspiracy, sorta like the Swedish math babe and the "party solves" Hilbert's theory. But seriously, Investors Business Daily today has a good blurb: we should always move to the path of least resistance and cherish productivity. When a job can get done faster through cheaper technology or cheaper labor, people should not stand in the way of progress. Ok, lecture over. Now, for all American IT workers, start hanging out shingles (imagine how that idiom would translate), offer your services to Wipro and others for conversational English, and charge an exorbitant fee; it will help remove the advantage of India cheaper labor. Warn them if Dell leaves, everyone will leave! Signed, Pygmalion 2.0.
Is it easy to teach adults fluency, technical and linguistic, fluency in a second language? Does the human adult brain lose its foreign language learning capacity at some point in adulthood? Well, I don't know the answer. Sometimes people fluent in math are not as fluent in language, for some reason. How many American adults have improved their spoken and written English? How many African American adults living in America improve their fluency? Then extend the question to include other adult speakers of secondary languages. It just means that English fluency will flow over the bandwidth to the younger populace, just like it does in America . . . oh, wait, does it? We will export Sesame Street and Blues Clues, and phonetic spelling, which may not actually work too well. The metrics will be interesting to watch. Adult fluency . . . younger, child fluency . . . let's measure and see how long fluency takes.
I still say: can we get a headcount of planet earth? Population is a constant. Let's identify how many developers and coders are alive. Let's count salary and wages and figure out what the average salary will be, then post it here; perhaps Slashdot can have a world fund to keep developers afloat for a while . . . then we peg executive compensation to it and use influence, shame, whatever it takes. Then we examine other expense structures and bring forces that will encourage them to price to market . . . yield management, anyone?
Do we have enough spreadsheet and counting power to count every developer or call center staff person over the next 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 years, figure out or guesstimate what the salary will be when all levels out? Do we have to wait and see, or can some of our finest minds start giving us the answer now? If salary levels out at USD $5,000 a year, so be it. We can advise younger children in school what studies to pursue. We can decide how we peg executive compensation to worker salaries, and use shame and greed, in front of whatever groups we need to. Then we can go after expenses, say medical benefits expenses, and get those priced to market; yes, maybe the US Congress or another group (AARP?) has to step in and force or persuade all entities to price to market. The Harvard Business Review, Slashdot, and individuals, start calculating.
rilee
Pygmalion 2.0
Slashdot Mirror
The current issue has two articles of interest: the NAFTA shortcomings and the IRS targeting executive compensation accounting. There's a third article on a gent who buys distressed industries and was able to re-open a steele mill because the workers agreed to work for just-below-union wages. I bet he buys an IT something or other and re-employs US IT workers at a percentage below what they formerly earned. It's an iPods tune waiting to be activated.
We need to import the cost and debt structures of India into the US.
It would be kewl to know start and stop time, and total time, for the world class Linux developers. It's probably lost to history, but think how project management might be turned upside down, inside out, and for good purpose. It's done when it's done and accepted into the Linux kernel.
Lessee, did Dell actually check with anyone how specializes in language instruction? What is our success rate in America for improving American fluency for spoken, ad lib, English? Probably you could check the adult basic education classes for success rate, then factor in TESL success rates. Best of breed for a call center would be spontaneous, ad lib language fluency. For a second example, how successful has the FBI been in finding people who speak Middle Eastern languages? Fluency is probably not a Dale Carnegie course and 6, 12, or 18 weeks.
Why not let American IT workers order a coupla 1-800 numbers, advertise them, and staff their own call center. After Napster, Apple decided to sell songs for 99 cents, so staff an American English spoke here call center and compete on your own terms.
You know, when I first saw this article, I thought "wow, all IT workers in America who are out of work have banded together, pretending to be Dell customers, and have swamped the India call centers." It would make a good conspiracy, sorta like the Swedish math babe and the "party solves" Hilbert's theory. But seriously, Investors Business Daily today has a good blurb: we should always move to the path of least resistance and cherish productivity. When a job can get done faster through cheaper technology or cheaper labor, people should not stand in the way of progress. Ok, lecture over. Now, for all American IT workers, start hanging out shingles (imagine how that idiom would translate), offer your services to Wipro and others for conversational English, and charge an exorbitant fee; it will help remove the advantage of India cheaper labor. Warn them if Dell leaves, everyone will leave! Signed, Pygmalion 2.0.
Is it easy to teach adults fluency, technical and linguistic, fluency in a second language? Does the human adult brain lose its foreign language learning capacity at some point in adulthood? Well, I don't know the answer. Sometimes people fluent in math are not as fluent in language, for some reason. How many American adults have improved their spoken and written English? How many African American adults living in America improve their fluency? Then extend the question to include other adult speakers of secondary languages. It just means that English fluency will flow over the bandwidth to the younger populace, just like it does in America . . . oh, wait, does it? We will export Sesame Street and Blues Clues, and phonetic spelling, which may not actually work too well. The metrics will be interesting to watch. Adult fluency . . . younger, child fluency . . . let's measure and see how long fluency takes.
I still say: can we get a headcount of planet earth? Population is a constant. Let's identify how many developers and coders are alive. Let's count salary and wages and figure out what the average salary will be, then post it here; perhaps Slashdot can have a world fund to keep developers afloat for a while . . . then we peg executive compensation to it and use influence, shame, whatever it takes. Then we examine other expense structures and bring forces that will encourage them to price to market . . . yield management, anyone?
Do we have enough spreadsheet and counting power to count every developer or call center staff person over the next 1, 5, 10, 15, 20 years, figure out or guesstimate what the salary will be when all levels out? Do we have to wait and see, or can some of our finest minds start giving us the answer now? If salary levels out at USD $5,000 a year, so be it. We can advise younger children in school what studies to pursue. We can decide how we peg executive compensation to worker salaries, and use shame and greed, in front of whatever groups we need to. Then we can go after expenses, say medical benefits expenses, and get those priced to market; yes, maybe the US Congress or another group (AARP?) has to step in and force or persuade all entities to price to market. The Harvard Business Review, Slashdot, and individuals, start calculating. rilee Pygmalion 2.0