From: Dan Kohn (dan@teledesic.com)
Date: Mon Mar 13 2000 - 01:55:28 PST
Uganda is a former British colony and English is the only language taught in
schools. So, there are definitely fluent English speakers there. But, I'm
just not convinced that proofreading scales well, in a way that satisfies
customers. How do you measure the number of false positives and negatives,
etc.?
And, the idea is to create meaningful work for Ugandans, as the expats there
seem very employed by all of the NGOs. See
<http://www.dankohn.com/itbusiness.html>.
But thanks for the suggestions.
- dan
-- Daniel Kohn <mailto:dan@dankohn.com> tel:+1-425-602-6222 fax:+1-425-602-6223 http://www.dankohn.com-----Original Message----- From: JS Kelly [mailto:jskelly@jskelly.com] Sent: Monday, 2000-03-13 02:02 To: Dan Kohn Cc: Fork (E-mail) Subject: RE: [IRR] WorldDataNow.com
Most countries have an English-speaking ex-patriate community of people from the US, Australia, the UK, Canada, etc. I don't know about (was it Uganda?) but I do know that in other countries you can get ex-pats to do things like proofreading much more cheaply than they'd do it if they were at home in their own country. Offering a Peace Corps-like year's living/working experience there might be attractive for some qualified proofreaders as well. Work permits might be a pain in the neck -- but most countries have a clause which allows foreigners to work there if they are doing something that no local person is able/available to do. I always had something about needing absolutely perfect knowledge of the English language in my job description, and was never turned down for a work permit (in Czechoslovakia).
-JS
On Mon, 13 Mar 2000, Dan Kohn wrote:
> >I'd probably divide and conquer. Add a quality of service > >and absolute privacy angle to it. Allow high dollar lawyers to > >be able to send a 400 page manuscript out and have it proofread > >and back before they get back from lunch. It's majorly people > >intensive, mind numbingly long, but could be accomplished in > >a short amount of time with scaling the number of people. Now > >you're talking about high value services. > > Great concept, but can I hire you as a consultant to train my staff on the > exact process involved in "proofreading." I'm concerned that it's too > open-ended to guarantee that the lawyers are getting their value. But, I > think we can definitely handle the privacy aspects so I would love to figure > out an offering in this space that makes sense. > > - dan > -- > Daniel Kohn <mailto:dan@dankohn.com> > tel:+1-425-602-6222 fax:+1-425-602-6223 > http://www.dankohn.com >
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