Reaction to Article: IBM tries to come up with creative ways to help companies jump on the outsourcing train.

This article makes me sick to my stomach in that it talks about how IBM is trying to patent software that will make outsourcing easy. 

The patent application is an attempt to patent the use of computer software to algorithmically analyze a workforce and the various workloads on a company and determine which parts should be cut and outsourced.  

What the hell?!

IBM is also seeking to patent a software system for “matching a knowledge worker” with a corporate entity via means including “experience levels, salary, geographic location, job starting date and duration, and industry sector”.   

Not only is this encouraging American corporations to outsource american jobs but it’s simplifying it to a simple computer program.  With this program you could just plug in any worker you have working for you and determine if outsourcing their job would be more beneficial.  Just when you think IBM couldn’t get any worse they also want to patent this:

a “System and method of using speech recognition at call centers to improve their efficiency and customer satisfaction”.  This application attempts to patent a system for accent reduction in international workers.  The patent’s language clearly indicates that it is targeted for situations such as call centers, where a large number of non-native English speakers will be answering calls.  

This would end all those complaints from Americans about how they have to speak to someone from another country when they have a computer problem.I think these patents are evil and completely un-American.  And what’s even more disturbing about IBM is that they are patenting the programs so they can make even more money when other companies want to outsource with the easy computer programs.This is just wrong.
 What is this country coming to?   
Here’s the link:http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=9003 

Reaction to “Exporting American Jobs”, CNN

 This piece from Lou Dobbs Tonight deals with off-shoring jobs to countries like India and Canada.  The story list examples of companies that do send jobs off as well as the benefits.  One person that bothered me in the piece was the guy how explained that the only person to blame for off-shoring is ourselves.  He claims that consumers want the lowest possible price as well as high profits in the stock market and that this puts a lot of pressure on businesses to perform well and have a lot of profits.  I think that consumers always want low prices but to say that the consumer is solely to blame is outrageous.  Businesses are making profits extremely higher than the discounts they are putting in place on their products and to simply point the finger at the american consumers is ridiculous.

If all our jobs are outsourced Americans won’t be able to afford to pay for cheap products.  

Reaction to Video: ABC News Report On Outsourcing To India Part 2

In this second portion of the ABC report on India we see how outsourcing is affecting daily life in India and America.  The piece talks about how since America has been outsourcing for so long that the cost of living has risen and that’s why America is at the top for cost of living.  The story also talks about how an American 9th or 10th grader is at the same level as a 7th grader in India.  A Texan mother got her son tutored by a young woman in India.  The piece suggests that America be open to outsourcing in that it has helped america for so long and that it still can.  

The most attention grabbing thing in the piece to me was the part about the guy who goes to India to get his hips replaced by a world class surgeon at 1/6 of the price he would have to pay in America.   

At the end of the piece the reporter gives a chilling glimpse of the future by mentioning that the jobs will soon be moving to South Africa and out of India.  

Reaction to Video: ABC News Report On Outsourcing To India Part 1

This ABC news report is the first part of a two night special on India.  This first part takes a look at India on a global sense and argues that India is not the third world country that some people mistakenly take it as.  Throughout the story you see how the population there is astounding.  Their population has already reached a billion and they are all very well educated.  In the clips we see how technology and education is a big part of the young people in India.  One man discusses with the reporter on the streets how India is much more than people take it as.  He uses a shanty with a PC computer inside as a metaphor for India in that it looks bad from the inside but once you get inside you can see what it is really capable of.

In the story the reporter also interviews the author of “The World is Flat.”  The author talks about how India is a miracle in that all the different peoples there all get along in peace and that along with there importance on eduction contributes to India soon to be dominating global strength.  He also goes on to talk about how India has been waiting for this for a long time.  He compares India to a champagne bottle that has been shakin’ up for an hour and the cap is about to shoot off.       

Reaction to New York Times Article: Outsourcing Works, So India Is Exporting Jobs

In this article the biggest thing to note is that:

India is outsourcing outsourcing. 

After learning from the American model on outsourcing India is following in it’s teacher’s footsteps by beating it’s clients to the punch.

To fight on the shifting terrain, and to beat back emerging rivals, Indian companies are hiring workers and opening offices in developing countries themselves, before their clients do. 

 This is yet another example of how India is becoming/is a global powerhouse.  With India learning from Western culture through outsourcing Indian businesses is seeing the benefits of outsourcing cheap labor to third world countries.

 The company seeks to become a global matchmaker for outsourcing: any time a company wants work done somewhere else, even just down the street, Infosys wants to get the call.

 

It is a peculiar ambition for a company that symbolizes the flow of tasks from the West to India. 

 With these kinds of trends the bigger question is where does that leave the United States?  The article goes on to talk about how Indian companies are specially going about dealing with their means of outsourcing and how they are going about doing it.  The article concludes by talking about how American software engineer trainees are now sent to India for work and become trained.  It looks like the world is being flipped upside down.   

 

   
Here’s the link: 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/business/worldbusiness/25outsource.html?_r=1&oref=slogin 

Reaction to Article: Exportation of high tech jobs to India worries Bingaman

“People who think that the outsourcing of work to India involves just low-end jobs are very confused,” Bingaman says. “There is a lot of world-class research going on there in the areas of biotech and information technologies. It surprised me to see the investments that companies are making in India and of the cutting-edge work they are doing there.”  

This article talks about how India is no longer limited to calling services or low level jobs.  In Senator Jeff Bingaman’s research he found that a power plant in Indiana was being given orders and directions from two technicians in India (and no that’s not a mistake.)  This inspired the Senator to go on a nine day trip to India to see this first hand.

Bingaman wasn’t so much upset with the fact that people in India had high tech jobs, but he was more upset that America is ignorantly failing to see that the world is becoming very competitive and that something needs to be done to put America ahead of the curve again.In the conclusion of the article Bingaman mentions that he is going to propose a bill that will go towards building 20 new world class science parks.  Bingaman feels that these parks will help America will get back a head of the game.  I feel that these parks wouldn’t be that beneficial.  I think instead an Indian Technician shouldn’t be aloud to be running a power plant that’s in Indiana in the first place.  I don’t think it’s a matter of global edge I think it deals more with cheaper labor.  I think outsourcing is the real problem.
 http://www.bizjournals.com/albuquerque/stories/2005/02/07/story7.html

Reaction to Video: Outsourcing America – Sen Byron Jorgan

In this video from Lou Dobbs tonight  Senator Byron Jorgan, author of “Take This Job and Ship it”, speaks his feelings about job outsourcing.  He mentions how he has tried to get free trade agreements adjusted to fair trade agreements but has been stopped by the President along with Republicans in the senate.  He gives a little hope mentioning how with elections of democrats now in the senate there is hope for change.I agree with the senators points about immigration as his feelings about fair trade agreements.  His attitude is similar to the one I took in my policy paper.  Fair trade is the answer to outsourcing.  Free trade agreements is the biggest draw for sending jobs overseas and once this is adjusted accordingly outsourcing won’t have that sweet appeal that he has now.

Reaction to “Eye to Eye: Lou Dobbs”

This is a clip from CBS News called “Eye to Eye: Lou Dobbs.”  Lesley Stahl from 60 minutes interviewed Dobbs in the clip. This clip is great at showing the real Lou Dobbs and lets him talk about his views on outsourcing along wit border control.  In his interview Dobbs uses pathos and ethos to get his points accross to the viewers.  I like Dobbs points that he makes because they don’t come off as views by republican or Democratic but instead by someone how is looking in the best interest of America.  Dobbs makes points about corporate america should not have as much control as they do and answers to claims made against him from his critics.  Some people think that Dobbs needs to keep his opinions to himself but I like that he is speaking out against something that he thinks is un-American.  I think that’s what America is all about.  

Reaction to Comic

This comic is a funny take on outsourcing.  I just thought it was worth sharing. 

  http://www.offthemark.com/search-results/key/job+outsourcing/

Reaction to Beyond Bangalore: India’s Next Outsourcing Hot Spots

This article is pretty disturbing in that it talks about how companies are developing India too  much and must move towards finding new undeveloped cities where wages won’t be increased so much.  The article even goes on to share research made by an outsourcing expert out of Dallas that lists the best new Indian cites to open Tech hubs.  

Next on the list is Nagpur, which boasts numerous colleges and universities, including Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology. Its large and relatively cheap labor pool has already caught the attention of Satyam and Oracle. 

What really bothers me about this is the casual tone of what they’re talking about.  They talk about the countries becoming westernized as a bad thing and suggest that new poorer cities must be looked at instead.  Does anyone see the evil in any of this?     http://informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2007/03/beyond_bangalor.html;jsessionid=LZE5N4ON5OACMQSNDLPCKHSCJUNN2JVN