Free Republic

US has introduced a unique programme that promises a double bonanza for Indians vying for the BPO industry. Called the SeaCode programme which will be launched in early 2006, it will deal with low cost distant shore outsourcing. A cruise ship anchored off the California coast will house around 600 IT professionals who will execute global outsourcing projects, working in 12-hour shifts via the internet and microwave communication. The best part is that those working in the programme will not need an H1B visa, as they will not be operating from land. At the same time it promises to provide...

Don't start with the pirate gags -- eye patches, pieces of eight, Johnny Depp with a cutlass. David Cook and Roger Green have heard them all. Still, it is hard to resist the analogy. Here we are, with thousands of American software engineers clamoring for more work, and these two guys have a plan to carry even more jobs offshore. Not to India this time, or to China. Just . . . offshore. They figure three miles out in the Pacific should be far enough.

Two California entrepreneurs are developing an IT services business plan that reads like a CIO's paradise: sharply lower IT prices coupled with easy access to software and engineering outsourcing developers just a short boat ride away. It's the "Code Boat," a plan by David Cook and Roger Green, the founders of SeaCode. Their venture calls for staffing a cruise ship three miles off the Southern California coast with customer IT specialists and then making the ship available to IT headquarters staffers through a short water taxi ride. "We're getting a good reception," said Green, a veteran software developer and executive....

"Outsourcing" – which has become synonymous with sending American jobs to India or China – could soon mean foreign workers sleeping in ships just a few miles off America's coasts. In an outrageous affront to U.S. labor laws, a California company plans to anchor a 600-cabin cruise ship just beyond the three-mile limit off the coast of El Segundo, near Los Angeles, and stock it with foreign software programmers. Story Continues Below The company, SeaCode, will seek to classify the workers as "seamen," avoiding U.S. payroll taxes and the need for immigration visas. Programmers from places like India and Russia...