A Woman Finding Tech Jobs for the World’s Poorest People | Hacker News Reader

A Woman Finding Tech Jobs for the World’s Poorest People

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75 pointsjcr13 comments

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.

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.

>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?

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.

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?

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.

> 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?

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

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

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

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).

I don't know where you are, but have you checked to see if there are employment support charities in your area?

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.

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