As proprietary software vendors crack down on piracy, China looks to Linux as an alternative. On virtually any street in Shanghai or Beijing, you can buy a Hollywood DVD or hot new CD for $1 or less. Vendors peddle Microsoft Office, Windows XP, and every other popular software applications out of cardboard boxes jammed full […]
Microsoft Fights Piracy In China, Linux Wins Read More »
Going overseas definitely gave my career a big jump start — I went from covering local school board meetings in the Chicago suburbs to covering international conflicts within a few months. This was in Moscow, where there were, at the time, two competing English language dailies. One friend came to Moscow straight out of college,
Can you give your career a boost by going overseas? Read More »
Compared with some of the big-league outsourcing players, Russia is a rookie. The country’s current revenue from IT outsourcing is $150 million to $200 million annually, a drop in the bucket compared with India’s yearly draw of $6 billion. But, though little more than a decade old, Russia’s outsourcing industry is learning to play to
Outsourcing: Russia and Eastern Europe Read More »
Jonathan Schwartz is President and Chief Operating Officer of Sun Microsystems, Inc. He answered some questions for me for a story on blogging, but only a few words made it into the final article (due out in print next week). Question: What value can an employee’s blog offer to an enterprise? Schwartz: Sun serves such
Q&A: Jonathan Schwartz Read More »
The Foreign Correspondents’ Club in Shanghai is an extremely active organization. It hosts talks with news makers as well as cultural and social events. Several of its members have been very kind in showing me around the city. Bill Marcus, a Shanghai-based freelance business and political journalist, entered me a raffle that netted me a
Foreign Correspondents Club Read More »
The oldest (Anastasia, or “Kiska,” who’s 9) has been enrolled in, and is going to, school. A local Chinese school — five minute walk from our housing complex, and even on the same block! It looks a little dingy, a little Soviet, but you can’t beat the commute and she’ll definitely be learning a lot
Turtles, snakes and giant frogs Read More »
The paperwork is reportedly moving along to make me an official foreign correspondent in China, and the business cards are on their way. It’s time to get started, laying the groundwork for my new career. Unfortunately, I’ve been too busy these last two weeks setting up my computers, moving my files, getting the Internet access,
Almost a foreign correspondent Read More »
Well, it’s been two weeks for us here in Shanghai. Anastasia has settled into her new school and is making progress in learning Mandarin, as am I. Basil is still home with us during the day, but we’re starting to think about finding a kindergarden or pre-school for him to go to. Richard’s work is
Chinese food and the Foreign Correspondents Club Read More »
Kiska is learning Chinese in school, and seems to be adjusting pretty well. She brings home homework everyday of Chinese words (characters!) she has to practice writing. Basil is home with me, so he’s not having to learn any Chinese yet. We’re going to start looking for a kindergarden for him soon. Our apartment building
Chinese school and Russian Soup Read More »
Pay for freelance journalism is atrociously low pay. But I think the problem goes deeper than stingy bosses, etc… I think that journalism is one of those jobs, like tending bar, that you don’t really have to know much in order to be able to do well. You need to be able to write the
How do you make a living as a freelance journalist Read More »
I find that the transition from local business to national business pubs is very straightforward — my husband did it in a few months. Here’s my advice: • Hire a cheap college student to set up a web site for you. Feel free to have him steal mine. A low-cost way of doing it is
Q: How do you go from writing for local business publications to national ones? Read More »
There’s a treasure trove of scientific talent — and lots of government bureaucracy.
Russia and Eastern Europe Read More »
Online editors who have managed to attract the elusive younger set make it sound so simple: Give them content they’ll want to read and forums online where they can meet and discuss things that matter to them Ever since Mike Noe got to the Rocky Mountain News in 1999, he?s noticed the youth readership numbers
Newspaper Web Sites Struggle to Attract Younger Readers Read More »
Online news sites have long noticed a troubling drop-off in visitors during the evening hours. Last year, several newspapers got together with Minneapolis-based Minnesota Opinion Research Inc. (MORI) to find out exactly what was going on. There was good news and there was bad news. In a study released in January, Rusty Coats, MORI’s director
News Sites Experiment With ‘Dayparting’ by Tailoring Content Read More »
A year after Steve Kaufman and his staff at Goshen, Ind.-based health care insurer Mennonite Mutual Aid Association (MMAA) launched a massive enterprise application integration (EAI) project (see story), the results are in, and the news is mostly good. The company’s goal was to use tools from Vitria Technology Inc. in Sunnyvale, Calif., to integrate
Piecing It All Together Read More »
