What Should a Documentary Filmmaker Ask About Offshoring?

Philadelphia-area development economics and finance student Rachel Anderika and her associate, programmer/filmmaker Krishnan, are making a documentary about the effects of offshore outsourcing. Their "still under construction" Web site, Project Outsourced, gives you more information about their work. They're interviewing economists, bankers, anti-outsourcing advocacy groups, pro-outsourcing CEOs, columnists, and others. Where you come in is helping Rachel and Krishnan come up with good questions to ask. We'll forward 10 - 15 of the highest-moderated ones posted here (within the next 24 hours) to them. Expect summaries (and possibly audio or video clips) of the answers in late May, and news about the finished film this Fall.

Practice of outsourcing (not a question)

[Anonymous Coward]

I am appalled the companies would shift labor to lower-cost locations. This practice should not be tolerated. Now excuse me as I will get into my Honda and drive to nearest Wal-Mart for that 2-for-1 sale on Nike shoes and shirts, can't miss a deal like that.

Re:Outsourcing on Slashdot: Fair and Balanced?

[Anonymous Coward]

I hear rumors Linux kernel development was outsourced to Finland at some point.

Ya know, I thought something was strange...

[artemis67]

when the "Cowboy Neal" option started being replaced with "Bhagavad Neal"!

Just one question

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

her associate, programmer/filmmaker Krishnan

Dear Krishnan,

Where will the film be produced?

while you're over there doing research and such...

[maxbang]

can you find me a job?

Re:What field next

[Lil'wombat]

Anything in the service arena. With the huge savings my company received from offshoring development, I finally got that new lexus I wanted. What I'm noticing, is that the lack of quality amoung local car wash workers is really terrible. I think we could retain some of the VB code monkeys into excellent window washers and wipe-down workers. In fact I think we should return to the days of the full-service gas station. It annoys me to have to keep getting out of my big SUV and fill it with permium gas. There should be people who do that for us.

Re:What field next

[Akki]

Two words: soylent green.

Or maybe just fertilizer.

Some suggested locations to film

[Animats]

A few good Silicon Valley locations:

• Pacific Shores Center [scotthaefner.com] This huge, strikingly beautiful bayfront office park, built at the end of the dot-com boom, stands complete but empty. Great place to film an interview.
• The trailer park next to Moffett Field Facing the intake of the huge wind tunnel at NASA Ames is a trailer park. Take 101 to Shoreline in Mountain View, turn east, go about three blocks, turn right opposite the movie theaters, and drive to the end of the street. The trailer park is right in front of the 100-foot high air intake.
• The abandoned FMC manufacturing complex in San Jose. The Bradley Fighting Vehicle was built there. There's a test track for the things.
• Downtown San Jose at rush hour Little traffic, plenty of free parking, half the stores are closed. It's like Sunday, every day.

American companies outsourcing to be competitive

[xyote]

Can they still be considered an American company? If MIT outsourced its football team (they do need to), would that team still be considered an MIT football team?

Re:What field next

[AsbestosRush]

Anyone who says that auto techs are really computer techs is just blowing smoke. The majority of repairs that I've seen come into shops are because the person who owns the vehicle just put fuel in it and drove the piss out of it. Most of the computer stuff is either "it works" or "a sensor isn't working". Hell, the diagnostic computer you hook to the car to read the computer will usually suggesst what needs to be replaced.

The following is a true story:

Guy gets his current model year Toyota 4Runner with 60k miles up to a shop, and says he wants a new engine. The mechanic looks at him like he's grown a third head, and asks who told him that he needed a new engine. The customer refers the mechanic to the Toyota dealer.

Mechaic calls the dealer and starts trying to figure out what exactly happened. Dealer mechaic says that due to a lack of maitenence, the warranty won't cover it.

Mechaic talks to the customer. Apparently, the customer *NEVER CHANGED THE OIL* in the vehicle. Removing the oil pan drain plug confirmed this, as the oil was mostly gelatonous (sp?) black sludge. It's kind of hard for a regular oil pump to move stuff the consistancy of jello.

Re:Documentary perspective

[NDPTAL85]

Won't somebody PLEASE think about the corporations!?!?!?

Re:What kind of car do the complainers drive?

[NDPTAL85]

So Americans are supposed to settle for substandard low quality cars out of patriotism?

Lemme guess...

[Duhavid]

You are a CEO.

I would *love* to be discriminated against as most CEO's are.

Re:What field next

[Simonetta]

What is the next new economy, retail?

The death industry.

The systematic selection of troublesome individuals, their removal from their community, and the necessary legal and moral stategies for justifing the selection and elimination of this individual.

With the population rapidly expanding at a far faster rate than ability of current political and economic systems to absorb these new young people, the death industry will be the fastest growing new industry of the twenty-first century.

There will be many new opportunities for lawyers to devise legal justification for murder, new openings for religious leaders to develop theologies endowing God's grace on murder (built opon the initial explorations in this field by Wahabi'ists of Saudi Arabia to justify the mass murder of Americans and Israelis through terrorism), new positions for technicians to design and maintain the machines of murder, and scientific and academic positions for modifying the crude 20th century weapons of mass destruction into the focused depopulation engines of tomorrow.

If you find yourself bothered by the reminants of morality and conscience when transistioning to your new career, you'll find the recent development of powerful psychoactive drugs designed to neutralize this area of brain chemistry most helpful.

Sacred Cows

[Anonymous Coward]

"Would you like some beef jerky with your 3-tiered J2EE application?"

That would give you away in a heart beat! Most Indian Hindus revere Cows, and regard eating them as blasphemy!