Sunday, September 19, 2004

Cory on a new Cool-hunter detective story: I just finished Scott Westerfeld's "So Yesterday," a novel about cool-hunters working for Nike who stumble upon a shoe that's so amazingly cool that they can't figure out why it bears a red-circle-slash No Logo modifier. Nor how said cool anti-shoe relates to the mysterious disappearance of their boss, the head cool-hunter wrangler. The book is a fast-paced, smart-talkin', trivia-spoutin' mystery thriller that I read through in about a day and a half, laughing aloud time and again. I mean, how can you resist a book with passages like this one: The guy riding in the truck's elevator was muscular and lean, very dark. He was wearing a trucker cap and cowboy boots, jeans and a mesh shirt that showed off his muscles. In a friendlier context I would have pegged him as a gay bodybuilder doing an ironic take on NASCAR fandom. But alongside the other two, he looked more like one of the many hopefuls sent down by central casting to try out for the part of THUG #3 in a hip new thriller. [bOing bOing] The book is So Yesterday, by Scott Westerfeld 9:50:29 PM    comment []

Outsource university administration to India or China?. Nearly all American universities have experienced tremendous growth in administrative staff in the last 30 years.  At most schools the ratio of admins to faculty has doubled. As this trend continues necessarily tuition prices continue to outpace inflation.  Within our lifetimes it is likely that the cost of a college degree will exceed the cost of a twin-engine business jet airplane (in the 1950s four years of tuition cost about the same as a new Chevrolet). If colleges cannot get by without adding more labor per student why not do as for-profit corporations do and add that labor in China or India?  As noted in a December 1, 2003 entry, MIT has had great success outsourcing OpenCourseware programming and editing to India.  Think about all the jobs at a typical university that are done primarily via phone and email.  Obviously the entire IT department could be in India.  Why not the registrar?  How about most of the coordinating and tracking functions of the alumni office? American labor is wonderful but it is a luxury that most American families can't afford. Business idea for the young readers:  Start a university "back-office" service bureau in India or China.  The folks who've done this for Wall Street have been very successful (New Yorker magazine did a great article this summer on Office Tiger, started by two Princeton alums).  Most university administrations lack the initiative to manage staff overseas (or do anything innovative, actually) but they would all appreciate the potential cost savings.  So they'll need a contractor to do it all for them. [Philip Greenspun Weblog] 9:46:43 PM    comment []

Why voter surveys don't agree. Different readings in the presidential race point, in part, to a volatile electorate. [Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories] 9:45:44 PM    comment []

SJ Mercury: Hollywood: It's time to get creative, use the Net. Dan Gillmor. The gate-keeping function of the TV networks and channels is a bug in today's world, not a feature. It's an artifact of a time when delivery options were limited, and when the cost of producing high-quality programming was high. Neither has to be the case anymore. [Tomalak's Realm] 9:44:07 PM    comment []

SUNDAY COMICS [Begging To Differ] 8:21:49 AM    comment []

Loyalty study lists IT's top household names. A report indicates that many giants of the industry have been able to capture lasting feelings of customer loyalty. [CNET News.com] Apple isn't one -- but maybe that's a methodology artifact? 8:17:45 AM    comment []