“We don’t have any wage inflation in China and we haven’t for the last year and a half, and the number of really high-quality graduates coming out of this system is stunning.”

Freeborders China, one of the largest foreign-owned IT outsourcing centers in south China, has 225 employees in their development laboratory in Shenzhen working for over 400 companies. While this number pales in comparison with some Indian firms with thousands of employees, Cestar sees potential for growth.

More UK Firms Outsourcing
Gulf Daily News reports British companies are under pressure to outsource parts of their business to remain competitive.

A total 51 per cent of respondents said pressure to outsource abroad had risen during the past two years, while 29pc said the burden had increased “a lot”.

“Off-shoring is now part-and-parcel of doing business in the global economy,” CBI director general Digby Jones said.

“Make no mistake, this is a survival issue. Anyone who believes that firms have a great deal of choice are naive.”
This week’s Blawg Review, the weekly review of the best in law blogging, is hosted this week by Rosemary the dog, filling in for her human, attorney Sheryl Schelin who blogs at the SC Employment Law Blog.

As usual, Blawg Review #104 links to some interesting posts, including Stephanie West Allen’s interview with Mohammadreza Hojat on the empathy of service professionals as part of her series of interviews with thinkers and practitioners with ideas to inspire the work of both lawyers and mediators.

Good dog, Rosemary–here’s a cookie!

posted by Diane Levin @ 9:26 AM 0 comments
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Mapping the crisis in Darfur with Google Earth

Mapping the HolocaustIn an effort to raise public awareness of one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has partnered with Google as part of an extraordinary project using Google Earth technology to map the atrocities in Darfur.
International Herald Tribune reports outsourcing companies in India are jubilant over the re-election of President George W. Bush.

“This is great news for the offshoring industry,” said Nandan Nilekani, the chief executive of Infosys Technologies, a software services company. The trend toward outsourcing will now become even more inexorable, Nilekani said.

News.com reports spending on information technology projects farmed out to low-cost places like India should grow by 1 percent this year, according to a report Thursday from investment firm Merrill Lynch.

“The report, based on a December survey of 50 United States-based chief information officers, also found that spending on offshore IT services represents a small but growing chunk of budgets allocated to IT services. In 2004, offshore IT services accounted for 1 percent of the budgets, but CIOs indicated that that figure will increase to 1.4 percent in coming years.”

“We expect U.S. companies to increase jobs sent offshore in the next two to three years as they try to drive costs down and improve operating margins,” the report said.

“Merrill’s survey is the latest data point in an as-yet-incomplete picture about the scope and effect of so-called offshore outsourcing. Comprehensive data about the controversial trend has been lacking, but a $2 million government study is in the works.”
After the first round of discussions, the judges will select a smaller number of contestants to continue the discussion in a more focused manner, and then in early July the judges will pick up to 15 contestants to write a paper about the discussion and their notions of how to create a trusted online community. From the submitted papers, the judges will pick one as the grand prize winner, and that person will become the recorder for the December meeting of the International Online Dispute Resolution Group Forum in Hong Kong. All expenses to the conference will be paid for the grand prize winner.

For more information on the contest and to register, visit InternetBarContest.org. Registration for the discussion closes on May 15, 2007. And please help Jeff by passing this along!

posted by Diane Levin @ 12:02 PM 0 comments
Thursday, May 10, 2007Yes, folks - the hateful-right-wing-Republican-moron Rush “Pill Popping” Limbaugh. Not only is the idea of giving Mr. Limbaugh a platform to spew his garbage on a nationally respected TV news show ridiculous, his appearance on a segment, out of all things named “Free Speech,” is borderline farcical. The commentary segment was handled by Mr. Schieffer in the past, and he performed the job commendably. We know what Limbaugh is going to say. Something to the effect of: Liberals and Democrats are responsible for all the problems in this country. We have heard his hypocritical viewpoints millions of times on his talk radio show, and now he gets to bring it to national TV thanks to Katie Couric and CBS Evening News. I know the reason why they are putting him on.

In recent years, especially after the launch of FOX News, TV news has turned into a mouthpiece for propagandist ideologues, where hard-news and straight reporting has transformed into sensationalist commentaries. In short, what was once a source of information about the world we live in is now a grab-it-all race towards higher ratings. CBS is aiming for the same thing by bringing in the so-called “controversial” viewpoints. It’s simply a method to grab attention, because that’s what brings in the ratings and in turn the money. At this point, we can safely say that the concept of TV news is dead. The departure of Bob Schieffer and the arrival of the Katie Couric and Rush Limbaugh is just a stark reminder of that.
In This Case: blog allows people to tell their personal stories about the law

In This CaseThe courthouse casts a large shadow–so large sometimes it dwarfs those who pass through its doors. So mighty is the institution we call the law, so lofty its traditions, that we can lose our sense of scale: in the grandeur of the marble columns, the weight of precedent, it is easy to forget that the halls of justice were created to serve human beings.
# posted by OffshoreXperts.com : 4:44 PM 0 comments
Sunday, January 02, 2005
India BPO is Ready for 2005
HindustanTimes.com/UK reports India outsourcing companies and BPO companies are poised for a good year as outsourcing fears subside in the US.

NASSCOM estimated that the industry, including domestic, will see revenues cross $20 billion in 2004-05 with services and software exports growing at 30-32 per cent to record revenues of over $16.3 billion.

The first two quarters of 2004-05 have been extremely good for

ZDNet reports Hewlett-Packard has named Steve Smith as its new senior vice president of managed services, a division of HP Services that runs clients’ computing infrastructure and elements of their businesses such as human resources. He replaces Uli Holdenried, who took over as managing director of HP Germany.

# posted by OffshoreXperts.com : 4:38 PM 0 comments
Russia Outsourcing Challenges
CRM News reports Russia needs new infrastructure. Russia lacks the wealth of basic Internet “backbone” infrastructure already in place in the United States and India; that has kept inexpensive, high-bandwidth Internet capacity out of reach for many. The competition is designed to encourage ideas and interaction around the problem of creating a trusted online environment, which is one of the biggest issues in creating a useful online dispute resolution community. The contest is open to a wide range of students and recent graduates from a number of disciplines (this is NOT a law school-limited competition) and will run from now through July of this year. All of the particulars are included in the attached document.

The contest will run in three phases. The first is an online discussion open to all, wherein the contestants will engage in an online dialogue regarding trusted online communities. After the first round of discussions, the judges will select a smaller number of contestants to continue the discussion in a more focused manner, and then in early July the judges will pick up to 15 contestants to write a paper about the discussion and their notions of how to create a trusted online community. From the submitted papers, the judges will pick one as the grand prize winner, and that person will become the recorder for the December meeting of the International Online Dispute Resolution Group Forum in Hong Kong. All expenses to the conference will be paid for the grand prize winner.
This tirade goes on for a few paragraphs and he concludes by calling Chomsky a terrorist sympathizer.

Now look at the one truth in the Chomsky letter, the call for Israel’s aims to be “resisted.” This will surely be read by Hamas and Hezbollah as support for its terrorism against Israel and those who support its existence.

This is a typical pro-Israel argument, where not supporting Israel is equivalent to supporting terrorists. It’s important to note here that this isn’t the first time Alan Dershowitz has attacked Chomsky and other critics (see his debate with Norman Finkelstein) of Israel’s policies.

Chomsky replied in a well thought-out statement, countering every one of Dershowitz’s contentions. Written in the typical Chomsky fashion, the article is witty, sarcastic and long. Here’s an excerpt:

His pathetic behavior traces back to what was probably our first contact. In April 1973, Dershowitz wrote a scurrilous attack in the Boston Globe against Israel’s leading human rights activist, Dr. Israel Shahak, the chairman of Israel’s League for Human and Civil Rights, in which he even went so far as to support a government effort to destroy the League by methods so outrageous that they were at once declared illegal by the Israeli courts. I responded, correcting his slanders and fabrications – that is, every single substantive statement. He then tried to lie his way out of it, even descending to falsification of Israeli court records. I responded again, citing the actual court records and responding to his new lies and deceit.
For more information on the contest and to register, visit InternetBarContest.org. Registration for the discussion closes on May 15, 2007. And please help Jeff by passing this along!
# Finally, on July 19, 2007, together with Melinda Gehris and Ericka Gray, I’ll be teaching an Advanced Divorce Mediation Training at the Boston University Corporate Education Center in Tyngsboro, Massachusetts. Click here for additional information on the program or to register.
“The biggest problem,” Sukharev said, “is finding skilled workers who not only specialize in theory but in practice. Many still need English-language training.” Still, that figure for programmers is growing. In 2004 the number of Russian graduates with master’s degrees in computer science or majors in software engineering was 68,126, up 6.9 percent from 2003, according to the Russian State Statistics Committee.

Russia also needs new infrastructure , something on which India has made more headway. Russia lacks the wealth of basic Internet “backbone” infrastructure already in place in the United States and India; that has kept inexpensive, high-bandwidth Internet capacity out of reach for many here, Sukharev says. A T-1 line, or fast, dedicated phone and data line, with high capacity might cost $500 a month in the United States. In Russia, it costs $50,000 a month. “That is something only the Russian government can build,” he said.

The 133 rd running of the Kentucky Derby,which is this Saturday at 6pm on NBC, the winner of this year derby will have a much larger fan base by the end of the day. as the new fan base of that horse and jockey, will all hope that the horse and jockey who wins the derby. will also end the long 29 years layoff of a Triple Crown winner.
To win the Triple Crown, a horse has to break threw some major tough obstacle. those obstacles include; three races in a five week span with crowds of over 100,000 plus at all three of the races, those are a pretty good reason why,their have only been 11 winners of the triple crown since 1919 .
The Kentucky Derby, is one of those must watch sporting events, when it is on TV. and it’s even more special to see it in person. If you are the jockey of the winning horse, it’s like winning the Super Bowl or World Series and the same goes for the horse owners as the owners can now make money by just using the horse for breeding and the jockey will be known as a derby winner for life , which will help him attract future clients and maybe a few endorsements deals.
The Derby is also one of those events, in which you can watch it with all your family members or friends; you can also place a friendly wager on a horse that you think might win the race with your family and friends or in some cases you could even throw a derby party. Although the race itself, will last only a couple of minutes, there will be tons of talk the following week, as people will ask themselves can this year Kentucky Derby winner, win it all, be the next Triple Crown.

I just know that everyone has been sitting on the edge of their chairs wondering where I have disappeared to over the last five days. Well, I am back now and just felt I really had nothing to say, not to mention I have been busy with 2 of my 3 grandchildren starting school this week, working 12 hour graveyard shifts and trying to get my Lexapro dosage under control so I can work & sleep and function.

It has been a busy week and I am now getting ready to put together 2 really cute lap/wall hanging quilts for the upcoming fall season and as soon as they are done, I will put them on here for sale. I really think they will go quickly because of their colors and their simplicity.

So, stay tuned for some pretty awesome quilt pictures and be ready with that cash in hand to help support the cause for the dispatchers that help all of you when you are in need.

Okay… “Downtime is mine!” sayeth the fugi. Now I don’t know whether to play with some beading designs or take a much needed nap. Before I forget… I’m getting ready to ditch LJ as my blog host. When the time comes there will be no announcement, no fanfare, no forwarding URL. There will simply be no new entries here. If anyone really wants to find me it won’t require a degree in rocket surgery. I’m just tired of many so-called internet communities. After 9 years it’s become much like clapping with one hand. I guess that’s the price one must pay for being a hexagonal peg. I’m not claiming terminal uniqueness by a long shot, but I sure don’t fit into the square or round holes. Thank goodness I have no compelling desire nor need to do so. I adore the wonderful friends (family of the heart) I’ve been blessed to encounter here in Cyberia, and I wish to keep my genetic and “Big Room” families abreast of… whatever. It is for these reasons only that I mention this. In the meantime, stay tuned or ask me if you’d like to recieve blog update notifications. *~*~*yaaaaaawn*~*~* Yeah, naptime first, then beads! My love to y’all!!!
Well, yesterday was the day I stay awake all day because I have no daycare provider. So I got busy and worked on the quilt for the little 8 year old in New York whose family lost their home recently due to flooding. I even machine quilted it in a few places and it came out looking really neat.

Today, I should be able to complete one more and that will give me 4 out of the 5 requested. I am still stumped with what to do for the 15 year old, but thinking I need to check out JoAnn’s in Phoenix instead of my local WalMart which has great deals but most of the same stuff.