Please Scroll Down to See Forums Below 
Razorguns
Well-known member
OMFG!
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2837994,00.html
Pair float idea to send jobs offshore
They plan to put 600 global software engineers on a cruise ship just out of U.S. reach but close enough to bid on contracts.
By Hiawatha Bray The Boston Globe
Don't start with the pirate gags - eye patches, pieces of eight, Johnny Depp with a cutlass. David Cook and Roger Green have heard them all.
Still, it is hard to resist the analogy. Here we are, with thousands of American software engineers clamoring for more work, and these two guys have a plan to carry even more jobs offshore. Not to India this time, or to China. Just ... offshore. They figure 3 miles out in the Pacific should be far enough.
Roger Green is a software entrepreneur. David Cook was once a supertanker skipper who spent 15 years hauling crude oil through the world's sea lanes.
Now the two men have announced a remarkable venture called SeaCode, a company that plans to hire 600 superb software designers from every corner of the world and house them in a luxury cruise ship just out of reach of U.S. immigration law - but close enough to bid on multimillion-dollar U.S. software contracts.
It sounds goofy, but Cook and Green say that since news of their plan got out last week, their website has nearly been hammered flat by engineers around the world who are eager to sign on. Of course, the SeaCode concept isn't nearly as popular with Americans worried about the loss of jobs to foreign competitors.
"All it would do is be a further contribution to eroding the job opportunities for skilled American workers," griped Jack Martin, special-projects director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Why send work to a ship at sea, when you can easily send it to Bangalore or Beijing? Because many companies are disappointed with their forays into overseas outsourcing.
"It seems perfect until you actually go and do it," said Green, who did his share during an 18-month stint with an Atlanta company that ran overseas help-desk services. "There are some major problems with managing something that is halfway around the world. You end up sending key executives on three-week trips to Third World countries."
There are language difficulties, squabbles over timetables and specifications. The result, in many cases, is lower quality and higher cost.
Many of these problems fade away when your engineers are a few minutes away from the beach by water taxi.
Why would any worker choose to live that way? The same reason millions of Americans take ocean cruises every year.
"Do you remember the Love Boat?" Cook asked. "That's the kind of facility we're talking about."
The plan is to purchase a cruise ship and refit it as a lavish floating hotel. There'll be private rooms for 600 software engineers and plenty of creature comforts.
"They are fed, housed, and their laundry is done for free," Cook said.
There'll be a crew of 300 to attend to their needs; there'll even be free medical care. But this ship is also a floating software factory, with workers toiling around the clock, while clients buzz in by helicopter to check up on them.
Workers will spend four months on board and then get a two-month vacation, with the company paying to fly them home. Since they live and work at sea, the engineers won't need the costly and controversial H-1B visas used by U.S. firms to import technical talent. But that doesn't mean they're marooned.
During off hours on the ship, they'll be able to take a boat to shore, just like sailors on a visiting merchant ship.
"They can't live ashore, they can't work ashore, but they can come ashore and spend money," Cook said.
With their expenses covered by SeaCode, these nautical nerds will have plenty of spare doubloons to spend. Green said that SeaCode will pay them several times what they could earn in countries like India. But Green admits his employees will still get much less than U.S. engineers.
"Part of the move to outsourcing is to cut costs," he said. "There's no question about it."
The SeaCode plan doesn't sit well with activists who fret over lost American jobs. Not that they're planning to row out to the ship and scuttle it.
"I think it's a pretty farfetched business proposition," said Ron Hira, vice president for career activities for the U.S. chapter of the Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers. "When I first heard it, I thought it might be a hoax."
Even if Cook and Green launch their project, the 600 engineers on board represent a fraction of the engineering work that has migrated away from the United States.
Despite this, Hira says the SeaCode plan is a harbinger of hard times for U.S. workers.
"It shows you the interest that's out there in terms of trying to take advantage of low-cost labor," he said. "There's a real hunger for that, which should make U.S. workers pretty worried."
The job market for electrical engineers and computer science got much better over the past year, but Hira and his fellow techies are still fretful.
They should be. Demand for foreign-technology workers is as intense as ever. The federal government went through its entire 2005 quota of H-1B visa applications in a single day. Congress authorized another 20,000, and
http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~33~2837994,00.html
Pair float idea to send jobs offshore
They plan to put 600 global software engineers on a cruise ship just out of U.S. reach but close enough to bid on contracts.
By Hiawatha Bray The Boston Globe
Don't start with the pirate gags - eye patches, pieces of eight, Johnny Depp with a cutlass. David Cook and Roger Green have heard them all.
Still, it is hard to resist the analogy. Here we are, with thousands of American software engineers clamoring for more work, and these two guys have a plan to carry even more jobs offshore. Not to India this time, or to China. Just ... offshore. They figure 3 miles out in the Pacific should be far enough.
Roger Green is a software entrepreneur. David Cook was once a supertanker skipper who spent 15 years hauling crude oil through the world's sea lanes.
Now the two men have announced a remarkable venture called SeaCode, a company that plans to hire 600 superb software designers from every corner of the world and house them in a luxury cruise ship just out of reach of U.S. immigration law - but close enough to bid on multimillion-dollar U.S. software contracts.
It sounds goofy, but Cook and Green say that since news of their plan got out last week, their website has nearly been hammered flat by engineers around the world who are eager to sign on. Of course, the SeaCode concept isn't nearly as popular with Americans worried about the loss of jobs to foreign competitors.
"All it would do is be a further contribution to eroding the job opportunities for skilled American workers," griped Jack Martin, special-projects director for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
Why send work to a ship at sea, when you can easily send it to Bangalore or Beijing? Because many companies are disappointed with their forays into overseas outsourcing.
"It seems perfect until you actually go and do it," said Green, who did his share during an 18-month stint with an Atlanta company that ran overseas help-desk services. "There are some major problems with managing something that is halfway around the world. You end up sending key executives on three-week trips to Third World countries."
There are language difficulties, squabbles over timetables and specifications. The result, in many cases, is lower quality and higher cost.
Many of these problems fade away when your engineers are a few minutes away from the beach by water taxi.
Why would any worker choose to live that way? The same reason millions of Americans take ocean cruises every year.
"Do you remember the Love Boat?" Cook asked. "That's the kind of facility we're talking about."
The plan is to purchase a cruise ship and refit it as a lavish floating hotel. There'll be private rooms for 600 software engineers and plenty of creature comforts.
"They are fed, housed, and their laundry is done for free," Cook said.
There'll be a crew of 300 to attend to their needs; there'll even be free medical care. But this ship is also a floating software factory, with workers toiling around the clock, while clients buzz in by helicopter to check up on them.
Workers will spend four months on board and then get a two-month vacation, with the company paying to fly them home. Since they live and work at sea, the engineers won't need the costly and controversial H-1B visas used by U.S. firms to import technical talent. But that doesn't mean they're marooned.
During off hours on the ship, they'll be able to take a boat to shore, just like sailors on a visiting merchant ship.
"They can't live ashore, they can't work ashore, but they can come ashore and spend money," Cook said.
With their expenses covered by SeaCode, these nautical nerds will have plenty of spare doubloons to spend. Green said that SeaCode will pay them several times what they could earn in countries like India. But Green admits his employees will still get much less than U.S. engineers.
"Part of the move to outsourcing is to cut costs," he said. "There's no question about it."
The SeaCode plan doesn't sit well with activists who fret over lost American jobs. Not that they're planning to row out to the ship and scuttle it.
"I think it's a pretty farfetched business proposition," said Ron Hira, vice president for career activities for the U.S. chapter of the Institute for Electrical & Electronics Engineers. "When I first heard it, I thought it might be a hoax."
Even if Cook and Green launch their project, the 600 engineers on board represent a fraction of the engineering work that has migrated away from the United States.
Despite this, Hira says the SeaCode plan is a harbinger of hard times for U.S. workers.
"It shows you the interest that's out there in terms of trying to take advantage of low-cost labor," he said. "There's a real hunger for that, which should make U.S. workers pretty worried."
The job market for electrical engineers and computer science got much better over the past year, but Hira and his fellow techies are still fretful.
They should be. Demand for foreign-technology workers is as intense as ever. The federal government went through its entire 2005 quota of H-1B visa applications in a single day. Congress authorized another 20,000, and
