Saturday, March 25, 2006

Offshoring UX in the real world Richard Anderson revisits his contributions to  the offshoring of  user experience work,  with a  nod to my piece in ACM  <interactions> from last November-December (also available here). Referring to his panel at CHI 2005, Richard says: The panel's answer to the controversial question of whether offshoring of user experience work was good or bad pre-echoed Fred's view: don't view offshoring as good or bad; view it as a fact of life you must deal with. Not everyone gets it, though. A letter the editor published in the March-April <interactions> in response to my earlier piece takes a different view. The letter writer, Michael Beasley, did not mischaracterize what I wrote, so I did not feel compelled to respond in the magazine. But here's what I find troubling: I believe that merely accepting offshoring quietly is unconscionable--that it is wrong for the United States government to acquiesce to its citizens losing their livelihoods. . . governments have an obligation to ensure that those opportunities for employment exist. That's part of why I agree to be governed. If a government cannot provide us with safety and opportunities for a livelihood, then what is it good for? The answer to the question of "what is a government good for?" goes way beyond a debate about offshoring.  If we're talking about the current administration of the U.S.  government, the answer is "not much."  There's too much to fix before we even waste breath talking about government's role in ensuring jobs for its citizens. How about ensuring that we have a world in which to have jobs first? 10:24:45 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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