The Modern Journalist

Outsourcing to India

Image via Wikipedia

I’ve been noticably absent from the blog for the past few weeks, which I’ve explained in the last post. This should begin to change in the next few months as I’ve taken some steps to lighten my research load.

Yesterday, I spoke with two managers — and I use that term, but I’m not sure what their actual titles are; all that I know is they manage other people — from Brickwork India, a Flat World company that handles business affairs for businesses and individuals.

The two — Ritu (pronounced Ree-two, which means “seasons”) and Sandhya (pronounced Sand-h-yee-ah, which means “evenings”) — switched easily between professional and personal. They asked questions about my project and put together a proposal for our working relationship in between trading stories about Bangalore (”the new technology center of the world”, Ritu said laughingly, but without joking) and my time in San Francisco (”there are a lot of Indians there”) and Boston.

They were very happy to hear that my project was about social media and technology since they have a background in that area, although neither of them will be working with me. Much of the work they get is in the science and medical fields, which are apparently filled with scads of very large — very, very large — words.

Apparently, my assistant is someone who had graduated from college and has three years working in the private sector.

The work — mainly transcription and research work — is very similar to graduate assistant work, they said, which suits me just fine since I’m a professor. They were also happy to hear that since I’m used to working with younger folks — and giving them direction (although my students will certainly give wide and varying descriptions of how well I do that).

I’ve contracted with Brickwork India for 10 hours per week for any type of business services I require, with the option to bump that up to 20 hours per week if I need to. At the moment, my assitant will be transcribing and doing research — but I suspect I’ll have this person helping organize my contact list and do some other leg work before it’s all said and done.

The last thing I told them was this: the work will all be documented here — and in the book — which means I’m making them all a part of the writing process. And..if and when the publisher accepts the proposal, I’m buying a ticket to Bangalore next year to come and visit the people who helped me write my book (the epilogue, so to speak).

They promised to give me a tour of their facilities if I come.

So, that’s that. I’ve got about 30 hours of interviews to get transcribed — and about 10 pieces of long-term research that needs done. And we’re doing it without geographic concerns.

Long live modern journalism.