By Hiawatha Bray | April 25, 2005
> Don't start with the pirate gags -- eye patches, pieces of eight,
> Johnny Depp with a cutlass. David Cook and Roger Green have heard them > all.
> Still, it is hard to resist the analogy. Here we are, with thousands
> of American software engineers clamoring for more work, and these two
> guys have a plan to carry even more jobs offshore. Not to India this
> time, or to China. Just ... offshore. They figure three miles out in
> the Pacific should be far enough.
> Roger Green is a software entrepreneur. David Cook was once a
> supertanker skipper who spent 15 years hauling crude oil through the
> world's sea lanes. Now the two men have announced a remarkable venture
> called SeaCode, a company that plans to hire 600 superb software
> designers from every corner of the world and house them in a luxury
> cruise ship just out of reach of US immigration law -- but close
> enough to bid on multimillion-dollar US software contracts.
> It sounds goofy, but Cook and Green say that since news of their plan
> got out last week, their website's nearly been hammered flat by
> engineers around the world who are eager to sign on. Of course the
> SeaCode concept isn't nearly as popular with Americans worried about
> the loss of jobs to foreign competitors.
>
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Too bad international waters are 12 miles out, and that an "exclusive economic zone" extends out 200 miles.
Too bad that a "luxury cruise ship" can only carry fuel and provisions for about two weeks. Supply ships aren't cheap, nor are port fees should they decide to dock periodically (and then see how many of those "superb" coders try to shimmy down the mooring lines). Not to mention, but the only thing that keeps a cruise ship habitable is a huge contingent of low-paid menial workers to cook, clean, oil, scrape, and paint.
A sweatshop is a sweatshop, no matter where it's anchored.
Let's hope they get WiMax working, because it's a long way to stretch a T1 line.
... and then there's that laid off, disgruntled engineer in that Zodiac packed with explosives ...
--Gene