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Internationalize the StaffInternationalize the StaffPosted Aug 2, 2002 13:06 UTC (Fri) by George2 (guest, #3049)In reply to: Looking for a money by someguy Parent article: Is it really The End? On the cost reduction-side of the staying-afloat equation: Linux is an international phenomenon. Staffing of LWN should be, too. For all sorts of excellent reasons. Good things seem to be happening with Linux in South Korea, India, China, etc. Internationalization of the staff would better enable LWN to cover these phenomena in greater depth and breadth than it currently does. Letting current staff from high-wage countries go and replacing them with highly capable people from low wage countries is the way to go. There are people with Linux skills, writing skills, editing skills, etc. from countries where $1500 a month - or considerably less - total would be very attractive compensation. Just have one native-English person on the staff for spell and grammar checking - not everyone is as fluent in English as they are in Linux. The flip side of such internationalization might also involve translation of LWN into the languages of the staff involved. Imagine LWN being the most influential Linux publication in the world with issues in English, Korean, Chinese, etc. . . . This would also open up your advertising base internationally. Each translated edition sponsored by advertising in that particular country. This way - you might not even have to go to a subscription model here. Donations might pull you through. A lot of what Linux is now is finding new economic paradigms. Your current financial troubles may force LWN into inventing a new economic paradigm for publications - and may make LWN an even better publication - out of raw economic necessity. Look around you - stretch your minds - think of unthought possibilities. You do not even have to change your initials. LWN simply goes from being "Linux Weekly News" (at least I think that's what it currently means) to "Linux World News." When do you start email interviewing? Any volunteers? Good luck, George2
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Internationalize the Staff Posted Aug 5, 2002 10:04 UTC (Mon) by ronjoe (guest, #3115) [Link] It's true - a huge number of call centres and customer support centres have set up in India and they service markets in USA, UK and other places.The cost savings are huge due to low salaries in India - about 1/10 the price of Americans/Brits/etc. So although it may be painful to take an axe to your fine team, replacing them with workers from the third world will enable you to run on a substantially lower budget. good luck,
Internationalize the Staff Posted Aug 6, 2002 18:33 UTC (Tue) by hgesser (guest, #3132) [Link] This seems no good idea to me. International cooperation works very fine with such things as generating code - that has been proven. It doesn't work as well with the generation of editorial content. Sure you could have low-paid people somewhere writing your articles (if they have all the contacts or information sources that your current crew has - this may be possible), but you'd end up with articles that are far from what people are used to, as to language. A simple "going over the text" by a remaining native English speaker doesn't fix these problems, in many cases you'll have to do complete rewrites of longer passages (I know what I'm talking about :) ). The translation idea might sound good, but you'd find out that translating a text sometimes takes longer than writing it, and again you have the quality of language problem. So in addition to a team of writers you'd basically need a team of editors (native English ones) that is as big as the current team. I don't see how to save money under that condition. Plus, it is an open question if a translated version (say, German) would generate more readers and possibly higher income - I think most of the intended audience of LWN understands English well enough to read it the way it is - I would stay with the English version even if a German one would be offered - unless the translation was really really good... Then of course, with removing most of the current team and getting new people elsewhere, LWN wouldn't be the same anymore. Not everyone is replacible (replacable? sorry, I'm no native speaker, either ;) ).
Good luck,
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