The IF Blog » Internet

Labor Getting Crowded Out?

Administrator — Tue, 04 May 2010 21:56:43 +0000

Companies have gotten lean during the recession, and in many cases that has led to increased profits. Technology has advanced to the point where mobile applications, real-time online collaboration and video conferencing provide inexpensive alternatives to having workers in an office, and the Internet allows companies to easily access brain power across the globe.

Tom Ringo, the head of IBM Human Capital Management (the consultancy arm of the company), said the firm’s global workforce of 390,000 permanent employees could be reduced to 100,000 by 2017, the date by which IBM is due to complete its HR transformation program. Ringo said the firm would employ “crowd- sourcing” and re-hire workers as contractors for specific projects when necessary, adding, “There would be no building costs, no pensions, and no healthcare costs, making huge savings.” An IBM spokesman later said Ringo’s comments were without merit. (Personnel Today, 4/23/10)

Whether IBM actually makes the transition to a mostly crowd-sourced workforce or not, the fact that it has discussed the possibility is significant. The expectation has been that hiring would increase not long after economic growth, but has this recession taught companies new lessons about the merits of lean staffing and the possibilities of technology? Might we see a significant segment of the U.S. labor force become permanent freelancers, doing work on demand?

Eric Zavolinsky

Shoe Games

Administrator — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:08:16 +0000

Still in its infancy, augmented reality technology is quickly becoming an integral aspect of some marketing campaigns.

Adidas’ new line of sneakers comes with an augmented reality (AR) barcode on the tongue of the shoe. When held up to a webcam, the sneaker triggers a celebrity-filled virtual game world and becomes the actual controller for the video games. The December issue of Esquire magazine had an AR barcode on its cover and contained links to interactive content and ads. (Brandweek, 2/15/10)

As the technology improves and new capabilities are created, more companies will recognize the importance of offering interactivity in advertising. Expect this technology to become ubiquitous.

Eric Zavolinsky

Remote Engineering

Administrator — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:15:16 +0000

For the first time ever, engineers from around the world, including 131 organizations from 23 countries, cooperated online and assessed the damage situation following Haiti’s earthquake disaster. They tagged 10,797 heavily damaged and collapsed buildings. In fact, public viewing of satellite imagery through Microsoft’s Virtual Earth product tagged 4,391 buildings in one day. (Engineering News-Record, 2/15/10)

The social networking of engineers and organizations could be useful in accessing engineering talent globally, much the way “solution sites” such as Innocentive access global scientists for specific challenges. Although tagging and describing destroyed structures may be rather simplistic, increasingly sophisticated engineering work will be available on a remote basis.

Charles Hess

No Newspapers Will Be Bad News

Administrator — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:54:30 +0000

Despite the ballooning prevalence of digital media, it is traditional journalists at traditional news outlets that uncover and report most of the “news.”

A recent study found that 95 percent of news stories that offer new information (facts not already reported elsewhere) come from traditional media – 60 percent of which is represented by newspapers. In the study, which used Baltimore as a test city, only 4 percent of new news made its premiere on a digital-only outlet. (Los Angeles Times, 1/11/10)

There are risks and consequences for the loss of traditional journalism. Most blog news sites are uninterested in actually covering news.

Michael Hines