Digital Tipping Point: Natasha Humphries On Globalization And Job Security With Free Open Source Software 05 - Info and Reading Options

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This is one of many short video segments which will be added to the Digital Tipping Point (DTP) archive. Thanks to Thomas King, a writer for Linux.com and LXer, for doing the rough editing for this series of interview segments! In this series of 15 interview segments, software engineer Natasha Humphries tells the remarkable story of losing her job as a software engineer to colleagues in Bangalore, India. Natasha, a Stanford grad who has worked for 10 years as a software engineer, was interviewed by the US national news media and called to testify before Congress about her experiences. Her Digital Tipping Point interview focuses on how things might have been different for her if she had been working on a Free Open Source Software project. She says that if she had been able to control the code on which she was working, her employer, Palm One, would not have been able to dismiss her as easily it did, since she would have been able to fork the code and thus give her greater bargaining power in her relationship with her employer. A less enlightened individual might have lashed out at the person who replaced her, but Natasha looks past that knee-jerk reaction. Natasha shows us the connectedness between herself and the colleagues with whom she worked in India. She provides a very moving personal account of a trip to India in which she encounters deep poverty, and she sees that the Indian colleague who replaced her could not do much to increase their wages or improve their working conditions. As long as those software engineers, both in the US and India, could not control the code they created, they could not control their own financial destinies. This footage is shot dark in segments 01 through 1:01 of segment 04 (Tape 157~001-004). Those segments will need to be re-rendered lighter for final use. The audio is really good. After 1:01 of segment 04, the footage is lighter. This footage is our raw rough-cut footage. It lacks transitions, music, special effectsor finish rendering. It is our "source code". Please feel free to rip, mix and burn this footage consistent with our Creative Commons license as disclosed on this page. In segment 05 (Tape 157~005), Natasha says that this experience of being locked out of this proprietary software project for Palm One was not as devastating for her as it might have been for other people, because she has a relatively diversified background. She says that Free Open Source Software (FOSS) is also good for women and minorities because it lowers the barriers to entry into various different jobs, because it is a meritocracy. If you have the skills, you can get the job. Free Open Source Software is transparent, so it lets you get the skills you need to compete for jobs. Managers tend to hire people who are like them, both in terms of personality and race. Free Open Source Software can open doors for people who have skills but might not have earned a Microsoft certification, for example. And FOSS also balances the employee's relationship with the employer, giving a bit more power to the employee than he or she had before, because FOSS allows the employee to have greater control over the code. In segment 06 (Tape 157~006), Natasha says that the employee's power to fork the code gives them the ability to leave a company and take the code with them and develop it elsewhere. She thinks that she would have had more leverage with Palm One if she had been working on Free Open Source Software (FOSS). Palm One owned the code, so she could not take her work with her when she left. The FOSS community decides what code to advance, not just the companies. She was expendable because the code was closed. After she transfered her knowledge to the colleagues she was training, she was no longer needed. If she had been working on a FOSS project, she would have had more leverage with Palm One. This is particulary true when you have software engineers in the US earning $75,000.00 US to $125.000.00 US per year competing with people in India earning $2.00 US to $4.00 US per hour. In segment 07 (Tape 157~007), Natasha says that her counterpart in India was paid $4.00 US per hour. New graduates from technical institutes earn $2.00 per hour. She says that differential is not sustainable for workers in the US. She says that it is incorrect, though, for US workers to blame the people in India. She thinks that they are just on the other side of the power imbalance. The real blame needs to be placed on the corporation that is causing this power imbalance, says Natasha. She thinks that Free Open Source Software could help raise the conditions for the people of India, which could bring them into greater parity with the US. By creating new idustries, using Free Open Source Software, Indian innovators will be able to normalize earnings ratios with the US, restoring balance. Toward the end of this segment, she switches topic and starts talking about the effect of globalization on Indians such as her colleagues. Her thought is continued in the next segment. All of Natasha Humphries' interview segments can be found here: <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_001.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_001.ogg</a> (segment 01) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_002.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_002.ogg</a> (segment 02) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_003.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_003.ogg</a> (segment 03) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_004.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_004.ogg</a> (segment 04) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_005.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_005.ogg</a> (segment 05) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_006.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_006.ogg</a> (segment 06) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_007.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_007.ogg</a> (segment 07) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_008.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_008.ogg</a> (segment 08) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_009.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv157_sf_01_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_009.ogg</a> (segment 09) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_001.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_001.ogg</a> (segment 10) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_002.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_002.ogg</a> (segment 11) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_003.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_003.ogg</a> (segment 12) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_004.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_004.ogg</a> (segment 13) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_005.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_005.ogg</a> (segment 14) <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_006.ogg" rel="nofollow">http://www.archive.org/details/e-dv158_sf_02_natasha_humphreys_palm_one_006.ogg</a> (segment 15) If you like this segment, please consider typing up a summary for it and emailing that summary to Christian Einfeldt at [email protected]. Your work will be credited and posted on this page. The DTP will be many, many films created by the global open source video community about how open source is changing their lives. We, the DTP crew, are submitting this footage for anyone to rip, mix, and burn under the Creative Commons Attribute - ShareAlike license. We welcome edits, transcriptions, graphics, music, and animation contributions to the film. Please send a link for any contributions to Christian Einfeldt at [email protected]. Or, if you would like to contribute by directly transcribing this particular video segment, you can do so by going here: <a href="http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_157" rel="nofollow">http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Tape_157</a> and typing the audio as you hear it into the wiki. Please be sure to add the transcription for this segment under: Segment 005, Natasha Humphries You can find other ways to contribute by going to our wiki front page here: <a href="http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page" rel="nofollow">http://digitaltippingpoint.com/wiki/index.php/Main_Page</a> Thanks for viewing our video!

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