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Strategies & Market Trends : Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mishedlo who wrote (33685)	7/15/2005 2:24:06 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

[-ggg, can never underestimate the creativity of some Americans<g>]--For SeaCode, offshoring means three miles off the coast Founders promise 'the price of India with the proximity of the United States' News Story by Patrick Thibodeau JULY 11, 2005 (COMPUTERWORLD) - What San Diego-based start-up SeaCode Inc. plans to do is nothing if not novel: anchor a cruise ship three miles off the coast of Los Angeles, fill it with up to 600 programmers from around the world, eliminate visa restrictions and make it easy for customers to visit the site via water taxi. The two men behind the venture -- Roger Green, who describes himself as an IT and outsourcing veteran, and IT consultant David Cook, whose job history includes a stint as a ship captain -- recently discussed their plan in an interview with Computerworld. Roger Green of SeaCode Inc. What is the business model? Green: The promise of the benefits of outsourcing in distant lands doesn't come free. Most of the gotchas are related to the geography and to the cultural difference. What are some of those gotchas? Green: Communicating requirements, doing knowledge transfer [and] managing the project are very difficult to do even when you are in the same building, [let alone] when it's across the world. That's the same argument made by nearshore providers in Canada. Cook: But we offer the price of India with the proximity of the United States -- that's the differentiator. How does that work? Green: The model is based on making a platform, if you will, to house these engineers, this workforce, which is very close to the U.S. but which is in fact not in the U.S. We can pull programmers and engineers from anywhere in the world. A fact of life is there are different skills that are stronger in one country versus another. Do you have a ship yet? Cook: No, but we have one in mind. We hope to have it set up and ready to run by the beginning of [next] year. She is a used cruise ship. David Cook of SeaCode Inc. Why anchor three miles off the coast? Cook: It's just more expensive for us to sit alongside a dock, because you have to pay for the berth space. Does U.S. labor law apply? Cook: U.S. labor law does not apply except on a U.S. flagship. The flag of the ship will provide the labor law -- more than likely [the ship will be registered in] Vanuatu, the Bahamas or Marshall Islands. Their intellectual property laws, as well as the laws governing seamen, are very similar to the United States'. What will life be like for your employees? Cook: The pay is about three times what they earn in India today. Each one will have their own room. They will get meals provided for them, cleaning provided for them, shore leave, laundry and the facilities of a cruise ship. This ship is a working cruise ship that we're going to buy. There will also be a doctor on the ship. The normal working shift will be 10 hours. What is the salary? Cook: Approximately $1,800 a month. What is your pricing going to be relative to India? Green: We will be approximately the same price as the distant-shore companies. We will take a little less margin than they do. Do you expect U.S. residents to apply? Cook: Absolutely. Approximately 50% of the resumes that we've received are from U.S. residents. Are you expecting any legislative efforts to block what you're doing? Green: We're not going into business for political reasons. What we're trying to do is accomplish several things: provide new jobs for Americans; [provide] a better deal for American companies that need to be successful in engineering new products to be competitive in a global market; and third, we want to keep the dollars spent on this in the United States. This is a step in the right direction and is not, in fact, part of the flow overseas. computerworld.com

To: mishedlo who wrote (33685)	7/16/2005 9:44:08 AM
From: Roebear	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Mishedlo, PPI Anecdote, Is the housing boom is responsible for high vegetable prices? Finished foods prices fell 1.1%, with large declines in beef, pork and seafood offsetting a large increase in vegetable prices I've noticed over the years the price of vegetables often drop when they are in season in the US. Plenty of folks 20-30-40 years ago had vegetable gardens and prices tended to drop just when their crops came in. Just went grocery shopping with the wife the other day and said to her "look, the prices on potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, etc., they haven't dropped like they usually do this time of year". One thing you don't see in our area is very many vegetable gardens, not anymore. Thousands and thousands of new suburban homes in developments, no gardens there. Thousands and thousands of new condos on the edge of city and town and no gardens there either. Perhaps in many of the developments, gardens are forbidden as too gauche for the neighborhood. But even at the new large Mansion like homes sitting on acres of ground sprouting up on farmland there are no vegetable gardens, and for some reason, not even many flower gardens. Vegetable gardens are found only in the small country villages. Apparently we have outsourced our vegetable gardens also over the last ten years or so. I haven't tried to dig up any data (though I have dug up some potatoes), but I am willing to bet there are more vegetarians in this country than there are gardeners. So we are and will be enjoying our organically grown vegetables more than usual this year, as at last there is a substantial price incentive besides the other benefits! Thanks PPI and all the housing boomers, ggg. Best, Roebear