Netizen: Employment

Showing posts with label Employment. Show all posts

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Facebook's Proposed Campus: Lots Of Open Space

What if it were a four story building with a similar square footage? I think that would bring about greater interaction.

I like the warehouse concept, broadly speaking.

Lots of open space, easy access to food, a huge rooftop garden. So far so good.

I only struggle with why this is a one story building. Also, where is the emphasis on exercise? And the opportunity for naps? Something Arianna Huffington is big on.

The rooftop garden is a good idea, but there are not enough trees around the building. The Apple campus plan has more trees. I am talking about the spaceship.

And there's no big body of water either. That is a minus.

Facebook envisions swanky new digs as shares sink

a single-story, hangar-like building covering 420,000 square feet, or roughly the area of eight football fields combined under one roof..... a tram will shuttle employees back and forth through a tunnel connecting the two work sites. .... the new structure will have few interior walls and instead resemble a minimalist warehouse with an open layout, so the social network's engineers and designers can easily collaborate on projects .... Scattered around the building will be numerous cafes and a restaurant and a garden will nearly span the entire roof

Facebook Unveils New Campus: Will Workers Be Sick, Stressed and Dissatisfied?

a single room, stretching 10 acres, where everyone will sit in the open with moveable furniture .... “It will be the largest open floor plan in the world,” housing over 2,800 engineers. ..... Open work environments are supposed to foster greater communication and chance meetings, which in turn would lead to more creativity, teamwork and the breakdown of silos. However, many people who work in open environments point out: The increased noise from phone calls and casual conversations impedes their ability to concentrate and focus .... Germs spread more readily and workers are more likely to get sick .... The lack of privacy (whether to take a call or to scratch an itch) increases stress and reduces morale ........ “In 90 per cent of the research, the outcome of working in an open-plan office was seen as negative, with open-plan offices causing high levels of stress, conflict, high blood pressure, and a high staff turnover.” ..... traditional office environments may increase individual wellbeing by 32% and office productivity by 15% .... “Some studies show that employees in open-plan spaces, knowing that they may be overheard or interrupted, have shorter and more-superficial discussions than they otherwise would.” ...... Proximity, Privacy and Permission....... Proximity: Give people plenty of space between each other, but facilitate traffic patterns that result in “run-ins” at shared resources like restrooms, entrances/exits, snack rooms, elevators, etc....... Privacy: Work stations need to be designed to offer visual and acoustic privacy; a cardinal rule is that workers should always be able to see if someone is approaching them. ....... Permission: The corporate culture dictates what is “permissible”; workers need to know to what degree is informal socializing accepted or encouraged, and what is acceptable or not when it comes to interrupting someone who is working

Facebook taps Gehry to design campus expansion

everyone will sit out in the open with desks that can be quickly shuffled around as teams form and break apart around projects ..... "cafes and lots of micro-kitchens with snacks so that you never have to go hungry" ..... "And we'll fill the building with break-away spaces with couches and whiteboards to make getting away from your desk easy." ...... Facebook will maintain its current campus and use an underground tunnel to connect the two areas

Guggenheim Architect To Design Facebook HQ’s New 3,400-Employee Tree-Topped Engineering Building

Engineers will hack away in one giant room, separated from the product and ads teams in the main campus. ..... the idea of taking a stroll through a rooftop tree garden to help your brain work through a tough coding problem sounds pretty awesome

Facebook’s new engineering campus to sport rooftop garden, underground tunnel

Friday, January 06, 2012

A Rising Economy?

English: Okun's law: the relationship between ...

Image via WikipediaThe recovery is slow but sure. I would have liked something more dramatic, but good news is good news. I don't think it's fragile. I don't think next month we will be like, oops, we are going down again. The rise I think will be steady, although not a smooth steady. Much of it is about growth in jobs. People need work. And the economy simply has to come up with those jobs.

There has been some good news especially on the jobs front today.

A dramatic realignment that I was expecting did not happen. The stimulus bill of 2009 was not dramatic enough as far as I was concerned. But the president perhaps did what he could under the given political alignments.

How long before the unemployment rate hits 6% again, you think?

Business And Charity

Image via Wikipedia

Wall Street Journal: World’s Richest Man: ‘Charity Doesn’t Solve Anything’: he could do more to help fight poverty by building businesses than by “being a Santa Claus.” ..... “The only way to fight poverty is with employment” ..... “There is a saying that we should leave a better country to our children. But it’s more important to leave better children to our country.” ..... He has contributed hundreds of millions of dollars to his foundation and has funded millions of dollars in joint-venture projects with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

This reminds me of the gay marriage debate. The last scientific figure I read had gays at 1% of the population. As in, one per cent of the people are biologically gay, they do not choose to be gay. That is who they are. Some put that figure to be 10%. I think it probably is 1-2%.

Men and women marrying works. It works for 98% of the population, or those among the 98% who choose to marry. But it does not work for everybody.

I agree that creating jobs is a great way to cure poverty. But the best economists say no matter how hard you try, 5% of the people will stay unemployed. The economy needs a 5% unemployment to stay healthy. Those 5% are not being lazy. There just are not going to be jobs for them.

Some people are going to be poor. Some people are going to end up homeless. There charity comes into the picture.

But what the Bill And Melinda Gates Foundation is doing is not charity. Tackling health care in the Global South is not charity. That foundation has challenged many long held prejudices about poverty in the Global South. You make these people healthy, and they go out there and get jobs and work hard and lift themselves out of poverty. You give them family planning options, and they have fewer children. They have not had the option.

People should go get jobs, but you would not argue that for primary education age children, would you?

Private business has its place. The private sector takes care of about 80-90% of the population. The public sector gives employment to the other 10-15%. And then there are the unemployed who deserve unemployment benefits. There are the poor who need charity and social welfare. It is important to also think of that bottom 5% to keep the social peace. That is also important.

Everyone should have access to education, health and credit at all income brackets all over the world. Most people don't, and that is a problem. Between the private sector, the public sector, the informal economy, the NGOs and the charity organizations, all bases should be covered.

There is no one size fits all.

Wall Street Journal: The Rising Threshhold for Being in America’s Top 1%: the threshold for the One Percent Club has more than quadrupled since 1980 ..... A salary of $80,580 in 1980 would be $207,920 in 2008 dollars. But that still is far lower than the $380,354 required to make the 2008 cut-off. ..... In 2008, the top 1% accounted for 22.8% of the nation’s reported income, up from 8.46% in 1980.

Why the Wealthy Are Paying Less of America’s Taxes: the rich are running away with a disproportionate share of the nation’s income but paying ever lower taxes. .... the rich are indeed paying a lower share of the nation’s tax burden. But that’s because the rich are losing income. And while their share of the nation’s earnings is falling, their average tax rate is rising. ..... the top 1% of tax returns paid 38% of all federal individual income taxes ..... The top 1% paid an average income tax rate of 23.27% .... the top 5% of tax-payers earn 34.7% of income and pay 58.7% of taxes.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Andy Grove On Creating Jobs

Image representing Vivek Wadhwa as depicted in...

Image via CrunchBase

Andy Grove has done a good job of throwing light on a big problem. The Great Recession ended, the downslide stopped, but the jobs never came back. America still has an urgent need to move from 10% unemployment to 5%. I couldn't argue with the sense of urgency Andy Grove feels.

But Vivek Wadhwa offers better solutions. Vivek's thoughts are more forward looking. (Tweet from Vivek)

I was surprised by the stimulus bill in 2009. It was big on roads and bridges and so very small on broadband. Here was America's chance to make one big leap towards becoming a full fledged information economy, and it put most of that money into old school roads and bridges.

America has to think in terms of how to become a country that is 75% college educated. That asks for a rethink of what a college is in the first place. Universal broadband, textbooks online, journal articles online, lectures in video format online, massive online and offline socializing. There is much demand for jobs in the education and health sectors.

America has always created new industries, and it has to continue doing so. Even old jobs, and old products have to be imbued with new technology to create new stuff. Electric cars are still cars, but they are the new kind.

China seems to be taking the lead on one of those next generation industries: clean tech. But if America could have collaborated with Russia in space exploration during the thick of the Cold War, China and America are not even at war. Win win situations have to be created.

Putting the country to work with goals of universal education and universal health could lead to job creation programs like during the New Deal.

America used to be a country where most people were farmers. America could not forever have been a country where most people were factory workers. That would have been one stagnant country. The Great Recession has also been an opportunity to reinvent this country and take it onto a new path. It is time to create new companies, new jobs and new industries all over again.

The jealousy of hundreds of millions in China rising out of poverty is a false jealousy. That jealousy is self-defeating. Those are hundreds of millions of new consumers that America could take a bite at. Look at it that way.

Global Finance, Global Terrorism, Global Warming
Possible Pitfalls In Barack's Way
Stimulus: Make It A Trillion
Stimulus: Size Matters

BusinessWeek: Andy Grove: How America Can Create Jobs

Startups are a wonderful thing, but they cannot by themselves increase tech employment. Equally important is what comes after that mythical moment of creation in the garage, as technology goes from prototype to mass production. This is the phase where companies scale up. They work out design details, figure out how to make things affordably, build factories, and hire people by the thousands. Scaling is hard work but necessary to make innovation matter. ..... In 1968 two well-known technologists and their investor friends anted up $3 million to start Intel ..... We had to build factories, hire, train, and retain employees, establish relationships with suppliers, and sort out a million other things before Intel could become a billion-dollar company. Three years later the company went public and grew to be one of the biggest technology companies in the world. By 1980, 10 years after our IPO, about 13,000 people worked for Intel in the U.S. ....... Some companies died along the way or were absorbed by others, but each survivor added to the complex technological ecosystem that came to be called Silicon Valley. ...... Today, manufacturing employment in the U.S. computer industry is about 166,000, lower than it was before the first PC, the MITS Altair 2800, was assembled in 1975 ....... Meanwhile, a very effective computer manufacturing industry has emerged in Asia, employing about 1.5 million workers—factory employees, engineers, and managers. ....... The largest of these companies is Hon Hai Precision Industry, also known as Foxconn. The company has grown at an astounding rate, first in Taiwan and later in China. Its revenues last year were $62 billion, larger than Apple (AAPL), Microsoft (MSFT), Dell (DELL), or Intel. Foxconn employs over 800,000 people, more than the combined worldwide head count of Apple, Dell, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), Intel, and Sony (SNE) . .......for every Apple worker in the U.S. there are 10 people in China working on iMacs, iPods, and iPhones. ..... Five years ago a friend joined a large VC firm as a partner. His responsibility was to make sure that all the startups they funded had a "China strategy," meaning a plan to move what jobs they could to China...... there was a time in this country when tanks and cavalry were massed on Pennsylvania Avenue to chase away the unemployed. It was 1932

BusinessWeek: Vivek Wadhwa: Why Andy Grove Is Wrong About Job Growth

his proposed solution—levying a tax on the products of offshored labor—will do nothing more than resurrect the ghost of the 1930s Smoot-Hawley tariff. Many historians credit this tariff with igniting a global trade war that contributed to the Great Depression. ...... We cannot recapture a bygone era. ...... Intel ... 72 percent of its revenue now comes from abroad. ....... I doubt that even the most depressed regions of America would want to be home to factories that pollute the environment, pay minimum wage, and work at the profit margins of these sweatshops. ...... From 1977 to 2005, existing companies were net job destroyers, losing 1 million net jobs per year. In contrast, new outfits in their first year added an average of 3 million jobs annually. ...... the cycle of destruction of old industries and the creation of the new has given the U.S. its greatest global advantage. Protecting old industries isn't the best way to reduce unemployment; it is a sure road to downsizing. ....... globalization will disrupt industries and cause job losses in one industry while creating jobs in another. ....... We need to have the concept of lifelong education become part of our culture. Education doesn't end when you graduate from college; that is when it begins. ....... most high-growth companies are founded by middle-aged workers who have extensive industry experience, want to capitalize on their idea, and want to build wealth before they retire ....... we need to recruit the world's best and brightest to the U.S. and do all we can to keep here those already in the U.S. ........ during the recent tech boom, immigrants founded more than half of Silicon Valley's startups. In recent times, they have contributed to more than a quarter of U.S. firms' global patents and helped boost U.S. competitiveness. These skilled workers tend to be highly educated, to understand foreign cultures and markets, and to be highly entrepreneurial. ........ building mechanisms to break the innovation logjam at the source—the nexus between the scientists who make the discoveries, the universities that market the discoveries to the world, and the entrepreneurs with domain experience who could take these discoveries and turn them into products. ...... China, India, and many other countries have learned the secrets of America's success—its open economy and capitalist ways. They are trying very hard to become like us. Let's not become like they used to be.

Friday, June 04, 2010

After Entry Level Jobs, An Internship

Steve Case, founder of AOL at Kinnernet in Isr...

Image via Wikipedia

On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 3:59 PM, Ed Carroll wrote:

Paramendra,

I haven't talked you in a little bit, so I am not sure what you are up to....but I came across something that might be perfectly suited to your talents:

http://ambassadoroflifestream.com/

I am curious to know what you think....

-ed

A guy called Ed who is a good friend of Alex Great Minds Think Alike Cybriwsky yesterday talked me into applying for an internship with AOL. The next person is going to ask me to apply for college: Back To The Future.

Lady Liberty Whispers
Entry Level Jobs
Job Search
Me @ BBC

Luxury apartment in SF; swank hotel in NYC?
VIP access to concerts & events?
Input on core product decisions?
Reporting to Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL?
Basically, the internship of a lifetime.

Job Overview

We're looking for one very savvy individual to fill an important position. It's an easy job because all you have to do is be yourself. There's not a job like this anywhere else...guaranteed. Intrigued? Read on...

A Little About You

You're the type of person we can see spending a lot of quality time with this summer. You have the perfect balance of charisma, insight and ambition. You might be thinking, "Sure, but what's in it for me?"

Frankly, a lot.

But we'll get to that later.

First, let's talk more about you.

Like a bloodhound on the hunt, you've got an uncanny ability to sniff out new trends. You go with your gut. Like a sixth sense, it always leads the way.

Your enemy is the status quo. Status updates, however, are your friend. You judge others not only on the content of their character, but also on the content of their Tweets.

People listen to what you have to say, because they know that you know what's up. You’re a social-media butterfly with the wingspan of a jumbo jet—you don't flutter, you soar.

You're comfortable in your own shoes and your friends love that about you.

Why? Because you’re cool, that's why.

Like it's your job.

Which brings us to why we're here...

The Job

For two solid months you'll be an integral part of the Lifestream Team and have the opportunity to work directly with Tim Armstrong, CEO of AOL. You'll sit in high-level meetings and speak your mind to our top product engineers, marketers and executives. You’ll tell them what you like and what you don't like about AOL products. We're depending on you to tell it like it is, and we know that you will.

Ok, we know. You’re still wondering what’s in it for you.

Here's The Deal

This is not your average summer internship. In fact, if we didn't know better, we'd think this was some sort of Employment rickroll.

You, friend, will not only receive a paycheck, but you'll also be living the bi-coastal lifestyle. A luxury apartment in San Francisco. A hip hotel in NYC.

Through AOL Lifestream, you'll be sharing all your experiences with your social networks via Facebook updates, Tweets, Flickr uploads, Foursquare check-ins and YouTube videos. Give your followers a glimpse into the behind-the-scenes culture of AOL. Remember, your friends are our friends, too. And if our friends have something to say, we want to hear it.

We've been making a lot of changes around here and we're not afraid to take risks. To inform those risks, we're counting on you to bring us weekly dispatches from the frontlines of the latest pop culture trends. So throughout the summer, you'll have in your possession VIP access to events around the country—the hottest clubs and restaurants, the most coveted live concerts, sporting events and industry social gatherings. Your loyal followers will benefit too, all because they know you.

You'll get all this and more for allowing us to harness the awesome power that is you.

(Oh, and did we mention the expense account?)

Think you can handle it?

If so, please fill out the application.

We can't wait to start working with you this summer!

Key Dates:
June 8th: Last day to submit applications

June 9th: Finalists will be notified; in-person interview may be required this week

Week of June 14th: Videos of Top 3 candidates posted to this site; final winner is determined by an online vote

June 28th: First day on the job in San Francisco

Mid-August: End of internship

Social media, as opposed to broadcast/mass/old/traditional media, is going to drop that first word in a few years and simply become media. Social media is the way media should always have been. The talkers matter, but so do listeners. Thanks to social media we are now having two way conversations at small and large scales. It has become easier now to participate in family and social/political lives. It has become easier to stay in touch with friends. As for businesses, finally the dog has caught up with the car. Businesses have always wanted to have intimate conversations with customers, all customers, and now that is actually possible. This total feedback loop will only get more sophisticated over time. And customers will see through all aspects of businesses. They will be designing products and services. They will be participating in customer support. They will become small investors. Social media is about bringing democracy into our everyday lives. We are now constantly voting, every hour of the day.

This description totally speaks to me. I kid you not, but I put out this blog post this morning several hours before a friend emailed me the link to this opportunity: http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/06/top-web-properties.html AOL is still one of the top web properties in the world, but you don't have the buzz you had 10 years ago. It might not be possible to recapture that buzz, but I think Tim is walking down the right path in trying to turn AOL into a major content platform. Me, or anyone else who might fill this intern position, is not going to be your turn around artist. That is Tim. But you are looking for someone who will offer some brutal out of the box thinking in the ways you do business. You are looking for someone who gets visibly uncomfortable in formal clothes. Big, old corporations are yawn, yawn, they are scary. You are looking for a Maverick, like in Top Gun. That is me. I got the attitude. Not only that, I am deep into social media. My entire social media presence and more would be at your disposal. Whatever you pay me and spend on me, you are going to get back in all the marketing buzz I will create five times over, before the internship is even over.

And Steve Case follows me on Twitter. I have a Direct Message from him. That has to count for something.

http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/05/direct-messages-from-ann-curry-steve.html

What I am is a tech entrepreneur at heart, but I am a year away from getting my green card. Until then I need to go work for someone else. This allows me to postpone going to work for someone else for a few months. And if things work out, hey, I could be with AOL for that year before I get my green card and go launch my company. I would love to have Tim Armstrong as one of my angel investors. http://technbiz.blogspot.com/2010/06/larry-ellisons-1995-network-computer.html

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Maybe America Does Not Need To Make Things

Does America Need to Make Things? TechCrunch

Farming is still around, but what percentage of Americans are farmers? A small percentage feeds the rest. Used to be most people were farmers. But then productivity started going up. And fewer people could feed the masses.

Maybe productivity levels are similarly going up in the industrial sector as well. Only the entire globe is the stage.

Maybe the future is that

Many traditional industrial jobs will move to countries where labor is cheap.
New green tech industries will come in.
Many workers will be retrained, re-educated for new, better paying jobs.
The new generation will go into the service sector, the knowlegde sector, the web sector of the economy en masse.

The education and health in America have been designed for bygone industrial eras. A country that might send 90% of its college graduates into the service/knowledge sector might want to reinvent the education wheel.

Job Hunting And 2.0
New York City: Transformed Forever?
Reimagining The Office

Pages

Saturday, August 25, 2012

Facebook's Proposed Campus: Lots Of Open Space