
A Woman Finding Tech Jobs for the World’s Poorest People - jcr
http://www.wired.com/2015/07/leila-janah-samagroup/
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bruceb
I am friends with a guy from central Africa living in the US. He is nice and
is eager to work. But at the moment his computer skills are very basic. Even
applying for regular non tech jobs means he needs to be proficient in general
internet browsing and data entry. This can be intimidating.

I try to to balance showing with letting him try to figure out navigating
sites himself and sometimes making a mistake. As a result he has got a few
temporary jobs that pay $15 (no benefits of course). Not a lot but a start.
Without being able to use the web he would have not got these jobs. I think
Janah's approach is a good one. That being said he is looking to learn a
skilled trade, not be a temporary sharing economy worker.

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JohnyLy
What a great story. It's so nice to see real philanthropists: people helping
others before helping themselves. In the Tech industry, many startups claim
they will make a change and make the world better when they actually think
that they will make their own life better. This woman is a perfect example how
the Tech industry can give to others directly.

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breitling
>Getty was looking for vendors to tag photos they’d acquired when they bought
iStockphoto. Machine learning can handle a lot of the image recognition, but
images of celebrities from different angles or with shadows needed to be
processed by a human.

How does one find out about such vendors who are looking for contractors to do
the work? Is there some B2B board for the tender process?

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rhc2104
Samasource has its own sales team. It's not designed for tiny self-serve
projects, but it completes projects for larger organizations, including
quality assurance.

Source: Used to work at Samasource.

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escanda
Sounds great but perhaps it could be more laudable an initiative which could
offset more profits, maybe not lowering too much the cost of the service,
towards offering this people an educational path into more qualified jobs, so
they don't get stuck in the same low field forever.

Don't want to be harsh, but it seems these days - even without taking into
account the opinions made by those close to the company related to the article
du jour, that it is quite widespread the notion of being a positive thing
creating jobs at whichever price; all the time at the expense of the worker.
Also it is a bit ironic reading the PR related to these internet/sharing
economy companies, coloring the legal abyss as an opportunity for depressed
sectors. But what amount of the demand is new and which is redirected to the
same working class but with worse benefits?

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soneca
I like this idea, even with the problems of the benefits, stability and
carreer path on these jobs.

I have an idea for somethng like that, if someone could critic it, it would be
great. Homeless people covering the streets of a city and mapping every single
business location, then selling the data to Google Maps and others of the
kind.

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CmonDev
_> I grew up believing in meritocracy and the American dream._

Well, that's the very definition of outsourcing!

 _> "... benefit the most vulnerable people in society ... They want to live
in a country with a strong middle class..."_

Let's ruin the previous middle class with outsourcing and replace it... With
new one? What's different - the colour of the skin will be "better"?

 _> "A lot of people are happy to give money ... city of San Francisco,
bastion of liberalism, were more innovative when it comes to how to spread the
wealth."_

Why are labor/liberals always about taking/getting money from people who earn
it and giving it to people who don't?

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ver
i was very excited by this, and was thinking about donating money. then i read
[http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Samasource-
Reviews-E483520....](http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Samasource-
Reviews-E483520.htm) \- in particular, the 40% turnover rate within a year is
very concerning.

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nothere88
That's great I can't even find a job!

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jlittel
Are you implying someone should help you find a job before they help someone
in Uganda?

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MyHypatia
I read the comment as "That's great" (thanks for helping people out) "I can't
even find a job" (and I don't have the additional hardships they do).

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3legcat
I personally am a bit apprehensive about this. This is introducing yet more
low cost labor in an industry which is already heavily populated by low cost
IT workers from China, India etc.

