tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994474.post3407133567617453690..comments2023-05-20T05:38:46.704-05:00Comments on LIS 810: Uncovering Information Labor: Guest Speaker: Gina NeffGreg Downeyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09154543464555817869noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994474.post-51293912221670092462007-04-10T11:46:00.000-05:002007-04-10T11:46:00.000-05:00No argument with anything anyone has posted. Thes...No argument with anything anyone has posted. These comments are very helpful.<BR/><BR/>The book by Ross cited in the Silicon Alley article, No collar, is a text we read in the first iteration of the class, and I recommend it highly. The beginnings of employee organization and traditional labor consciousness are discussed in Ross's ch. 7, "Optimize me." The key issue is that while Internet companies were expending enormous energy to make employees comfortable in the workplace, the survival of the industry in 2000 came down to cash flow. As far as employees were concerned, the financial issues were offstage.<BR/><BR/>In the article about models, I was reminded of how the public image of flight attendants has changed in 50 years, due to cost cutting in the airline industry, civil rights actions by employees, and unionization by attendants. Glamor has been sacrificed, but attendants have greater status and job security, along with more dignity. How models could organize to protect themselves I don't know. Actors, who have similar physical issues, are very militant.Jeff Gibbenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14432984957791374782noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994474.post-8874263852083281372007-04-10T00:15:00.000-05:002007-04-10T00:15:00.000-05:00I also couldn't agree with the dichotomy between '...I also couldn't agree with the dichotomy between 'participant' permanent beta model and 'consumer' traditional model. The product itself may be in a permanently beta status, but for the average user it is simply the 'most current version'. Moreover, Microsoft has already proven that even an "end product" intended solely to be consumed can be in a permanent beta stage by releasing crappy OS' and making you download endless patches. I think the grey area between them should be taken more into attention.KimNakhohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03456768658818767157noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994474.post-32444179036214532212007-04-09T23:50:00.000-05:002007-04-09T23:50:00.000-05:00I agree that low-end service workers may be a diff...I agree that low-end service workers may be a different issue in the technology world from the skilled workers that Neff is discussing. The skilled workers are project-specific commodities, it seems to me, only they don't necessarily see their commodification. They need to engage in social networking outside of work hours at a level that hampers family and personal life, and they are in an environment similar to that of fashion models--quickly obsolete and only a few stars can actually make a living. I thought the picture painted by Neff's articles was really quite a bleak one. Even in "Permanantly Beta", which was more positive, the restraints of code, the in-group "hacker"nature of those working together on a supposedly permanently beta enterprise such as Mozilla, seems a mixed picture. Is it really permanently beta?-- I use Firefox as my browser, but make no effort to improve it--I am a consumer only, and there are many like me.Waldenshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06633339962190872816noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7994474.post-45723333536854377972007-04-09T12:26:00.000-05:002007-04-09T12:26:00.000-05:00Silicon Alley's tech workers had the same job secu...<I>Silicon Alley's tech workers had the same job security as low-end service workers.</I><BR/><BR/>This may be something to think about. Do they have the same job security as lower-end workers? I may be wrong, but the readings from the semester seem to indicate that SA techies often job hopped and worked as creative contract workers. They knew ahead of time that their employment was temporary. These workers are extremely creative, but the worth of their creativity is rivaled by their cost to the institution, and if some other creative force came along, they were replaceable because of their high cost.<BR/><BR/>If we compare these workers to low-end service workers, I believe a there may be a different type of occupational leverage at work. Wal-Mart, McDonalds, and other low-end service workers may have greater job security because their labor is worth so little. It becomes more costly to replace low-end workers than to hire new ones. In this case the value lies in keeping low earning workers, not replacing them.Nathan Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10974101256160947257noreply@blogger.com