When the songbird sings

From Executive Brief:

“…thousands of white-collar jobs are being shipped to developing economies as companies search for ways to lower operating costs. These white-collar jobs include customer service, R&D, documentation, and not to be missed, software development. Various emerging markets have since been competing against each other in the race to sell (the capabilities of) their armies of engineers, scientists, and accountants–to name a few–to companies based in the North America, Western Europe, and developed Asian economies.

“Because of the increasing number of jobs being off-shored, even those who first supported off-shoring wavered in their conviction about the advantages of shipping back-office operations abroad. Furthermore, there is much talk about workers’ rights, economic damage, and low-quality of work because of outsourcing. “

Is outsourcing purely evil? Is India the only available outsourcing destination? Is China the only other outsourcing destination? Continue reading here.

Image from inju.

The environment took center stage in last year’s Blog Action Day. This year, bloggers are invited to write, podcast, or vlog about poverty.

Original:

Unoriginal:

Note to whoever made the my|Phone ads: Please don’t insult our intelligence by passing your ads off as originals, assuming that consumers will not know the similarity to Mac ads anyway. I haven’t switched to Mac and I think that Globe’s iPhone 3G deal is insanely overpriced, but I don’t see myself getting a my|phone anytime soon especially because of this dumb attempt at advertising. *coughplagiarismcough*

• How to Reward and Retain Top Performers

“If a business is to maintain an edge over its competitors and establish a good relationship with clients, it must rely the participation of its best people. How it does so is not only reflected in compensation appraisals, but more importantly, in rewards that suggest their value to the company.”

• Green Project Management

“Because green project management is still in its infancy, it offers many opportunities for companies to explore the possibilities of aligning methodologies with the need to take care of the environment. What is important at this point is to promote the idea that project delivery can be done in ways that have minimum impact on the environment.”

• Information Process Maturity Level: The Basics

“In a nutshell, the IPMM exists to gauge the competency of information development teams (or companies) in matching the maturity models that engineering or software development outfits follow. Ultimately, by achieving or going through any of IPMM’s five levels, the goal is to increase productivity, reduce cost, and develop quality information. ”

Troll with bra by abbyladybug

I’m still digesting this feature on New York Times magazine, a fine piece of journalism that sheds light on one of the Web’s oft-hated subcultures: the trolls. Writer Mattathias Schwartz profiled trolls, provided examples of trolling/cyberbullying victims who paid the ultimate price, and attempted to explain why trolling happens in the first place. There are many reasons, according to Schwartz and his interviewees, and the most frequently cited is for the “lulz” or the corruption of LOL; in other words, just for the kicks or because they can. Any self-respecting Internet denizen would be quick to judge trolls as psychopaths, but the trolls themselves also put blame on the recipients of bullying: they are drama queens, they had it coming, they take themselves too seriously, etc. While the trolls’ rationale is debatable, it is also true that there are people–a lot of them–who put themselves up for it with photos posted on social networks, daily dramas shared in minutest details on blogs, rigid principles that upon closer look expose the authors to further ridicule. Yet in spite of all the drama and narcissistic tendencies happening on the web, trolling is essentially cruel and does real damage to many, especially those who did not invite it in the first place. And technology, which allows for anonymous trolling, does not help recipients either.

“Why inflict anguish on a helpless stranger? It’s tempting to blame technology, which increases the range of our communications while dehumanizing the recipients. Cases like An Hero and Megan Meier presumably wouldn’t happen if the perpetrators had to deliver their messages in person. But while technology reduces the social barriers that keep us from bedeviling strangers, it does not explain the initial trolling impulse. This seems to spring from something ugly — a destructive human urge that many feel but few act upon, the ambient misanthropy that’s a frequent ingredient of art, politics and, most of all, jokes. There’s a lot of hate out there, and a lot to hate as well.”

In a response to the article, one of the profiled trolls provided a couple of tips on how to protect oneself from trolling:

All that having been said, there are only two ways to deal with a troll:

1. Don’t reply. Don’t privately address him. Don’t acknowledge his comments. Don’t even make a passing reference in another blog post. Just pretend the troll doesn’t exist. This gets rid of 90% of the trolls out there instantly. Then, if you’re smart, shut up and quit blogging for a few days and logically re-evaluate the post that set the troll off. Chances are, there is a glaring flaw in your post that makes you look like an idiot or a nutjob, and that’s why you got trolled. Don’t post again until you’re ready to amend it or defend it with better logic.

2. With the other 10% of trolls, you have to play the game. For every insult you receive from a troll, play along and join in the joke. If someone tells you’re fat (because you probably are), don’t get offended and rant. Just reply with a photo of a whale and say, “You mad skippy I’m fat! I would say this photo is me, but that wouldn’t be fair. The whale isn’t that big.” If you can successfully take yourself and the insults less seriously, you will win the good graces of the troll and he’ll either go away, or he’ll chill out, knock off the insults, and you’ll have made a new online friend. And trust me, it’s good to have a troll for a friend.

Of course, now that I’ve revealed this, no troll is going to let up because you’ve all been warned and can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse. So, your only recourse is to just not be stupid and/or batnuts crazy on the Internets. If you can do that, everything will be just fine.

Related:

Craigslist (from Wired’s Threat Level blog)
Trolling for Ethics (a blog about Schartz’s story, with lively readers’ comments)

Del.icio.us finally switched to delicious.com, due mainly to confusions with the old URL, according to the site’s blog. The bookmarking site also updated its interface, navigation, and search. You can search your own bookmarks, your network’s, or everyone else’s. This reminds of Flickr photo search, where you can search in your own album or everyone’s uploads, as well as limit the search to those registered with Creative Commons. They belong to the same mother ship anyway.

I still have to wait and see if the blog posting works with this upgrade. I like the fact that I can save public bookmarks on my delicious page and see them posted here the next day.

UPDATE:

Nopes, automatic blog posting doesn’t work with the upgrade. This means I have to tweak my settings again.

Check out Wordle, which creates a–tag cloud–or jumble words–from RSS links or delicious accounts. You can also paste or type a bunch of words in the text box and click Go. While Wordle results may not look like they have any use, wordles are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 3.0, so you can create screen caps and make money out of printing them on T-shirts, posters, or book covers. Java applet is required.

Here is a wordle of this blog…

…and one of my Del.icio.us page.

(I should add more tags and new links to reduce the prominence of web 2.0 in my del.icio.us account. The Kool-Aid pitcher isn’t full anymore, but by any measure, the wave isn’t over yet. )

I have been dealing with Microsoft Sharepoint a lot lately, so the latest team collaboration tool that Google recently released, aptly named Google Sites, is somewhat interesting, if only I would be able to use it in managing any project with a group of like-minded/geek-inclined people. Not that most of those I need to work with are not uber-techie, of course.

Similar to Sharepoint, a Sites admin can manage users and provide various levels of access to the project space. Another way by which it is similar to SP is its integration with Google Docs, Calendar, and Gmail; therefore, users who are already familiar with these applications or services should not have a hard time working with Sites as an extension of the said productivity and communication tools. Oh and one more thing, a Sites space is highly customizable.

Groups can develop their own intranet sites or publish webpages easily with Google Pages, which is integrated in the application and provides a WYSIWYG interface. A 10-gigabyte standard team package is free. Sweet! Actually, if you are familiar with the way Sharepoint works, then it should be easy for you to use Sites.

Now if only I could remember my domain account info….

It is a new word that just got added to my vocabulary. Futzing refers to the way by which people gather useless information as they aimlessly wander through social connections and interactions while avoiding tasks and duties.

According to Horsepigcow, futzing happens to be the future of work as those who spend most of their waking/working hours futzing about bridge the communication gap among various disciplines. Moreover, futzers have the ability to build their own professional networks and build credibility that prove useful when the need for other people or groups need new connections.

One caveat: you have to have an enormous amount of information to futz about. Things build upon themselves, and as you futz through your connections, you should be able to get and give various sorts of knowledge, useful or not. You can’t be a considered a good futzer–ergo, not credible–unless you have siphoned a nearly inexhaustible amount of knowledge in your aimless wandering through networks and connections. Your potential to earn more is directly proportional to your futzing ability.