brother_of_karamazov
Legendary Poster
I have been absent from jdelist for some time now. Some may not have noticed
I made the decision a couple of months ago that I was not going to transfer any knowledge that I might have to people who were going to threaten my ability to support my wife and kids. On jdelist, several people appeared asking newcomer questions and bearing sigs like "Knowledge is good, but Knowledge Transfer is better". While newcomers asking questions is not out of the norm, their place of residence was.
You will have to have lived under a rock to not have heard that current business practices in the US IT world lead companies to "offshore" or "outsource" in hopes of providing that extra nickel of "shareholder value". The result is that many Americans are losing jobs once thought to be the bedrock of our economy. Individuals once valued for their intellectual and problem-solving skills are being replaced with Indians willing to do the same (?) job for less money. Call it a Faustian Bargain, but it is happening. By the time American companies realized that they fired the very people who buy things, it will be too late. I won't even get into the business ethics of supporting a country that engages in child slavery (http://www.anti-slavery.org/global/india/).
PeopleSoft and (the former) JD Edwards are *agressively* making plans for or engaging in business activities that use offshore resources. I understand that a major effort is underway in JDE that makes extensive use of TSE development to enable offshore consulting, so those who thought this was only happening to developers are wrong. PeopleSoft has a major "Offshore Solution Center" initiative going where Indian "consultants" pre-install and configure the PeopleSoft implementation and ship it to the customer, cutting out the need for those pesky American consultants. To get up to speed, these Indian guys are expected to absorb knowledge from their American counterparts and to browse places like jdelist.com
You may not feel about this the way I do, you may feel strongly different about offshoring than I do. You may wish that I were silent. You may not care about me or the fact that I have withdrawn my assistance from those on jdelist. Some may think that is a good thing . What I hope that you can do is to follow that uniquely American principle of allowing me my opinion, which, like yours, is an opinion. My only wish is to stimulate thought or discussion on this topic.
I will not be an active party to actions that lead to the loss of American jobs.
Insightful comments are always welcome but don't bother flaming me- I've got three inch thick skin from ten years of Usenet and online forums.
"In Germany they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up. "
--Martin Niemöller
I made the decision a couple of months ago that I was not going to transfer any knowledge that I might have to people who were going to threaten my ability to support my wife and kids. On jdelist, several people appeared asking newcomer questions and bearing sigs like "Knowledge is good, but Knowledge Transfer is better". While newcomers asking questions is not out of the norm, their place of residence was.
You will have to have lived under a rock to not have heard that current business practices in the US IT world lead companies to "offshore" or "outsource" in hopes of providing that extra nickel of "shareholder value". The result is that many Americans are losing jobs once thought to be the bedrock of our economy. Individuals once valued for their intellectual and problem-solving skills are being replaced with Indians willing to do the same (?) job for less money. Call it a Faustian Bargain, but it is happening. By the time American companies realized that they fired the very people who buy things, it will be too late. I won't even get into the business ethics of supporting a country that engages in child slavery (http://www.anti-slavery.org/global/india/).
PeopleSoft and (the former) JD Edwards are *agressively* making plans for or engaging in business activities that use offshore resources. I understand that a major effort is underway in JDE that makes extensive use of TSE development to enable offshore consulting, so those who thought this was only happening to developers are wrong. PeopleSoft has a major "Offshore Solution Center" initiative going where Indian "consultants" pre-install and configure the PeopleSoft implementation and ship it to the customer, cutting out the need for those pesky American consultants. To get up to speed, these Indian guys are expected to absorb knowledge from their American counterparts and to browse places like jdelist.com
You may not feel about this the way I do, you may feel strongly different about offshoring than I do. You may wish that I were silent. You may not care about me or the fact that I have withdrawn my assistance from those on jdelist. Some may think that is a good thing . What I hope that you can do is to follow that uniquely American principle of allowing me my opinion, which, like yours, is an opinion. My only wish is to stimulate thought or discussion on this topic.
I will not be an active party to actions that lead to the loss of American jobs.
Insightful comments are always welcome but don't bother flaming me- I've got three inch thick skin from ten years of Usenet and online forums.
"In Germany they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me--and by that time no one was left to speak up. "
--Martin Niemöller