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Open source developers face H1-B visa puzzle – Jim Romeo for LinuxWorld, 08/20/07: According to a July 2007 survey by Gartner Group of 225 U.S.-based organizations, 66% projected some level of increase in IT staff looking 12 months forward. This is up from 61% in 2006. The H1-B visa program, which allows U.S. firms to petition for workers from abroad, has been one avenue of meeting this demand. But the number of positions needing to be filled is seemingly way greater than the allowable quota imposed by Congress.
Speak to the open source community about the topic and you are likely to hear a mixed bag of comments about the H1-B program.
One comment is that the H-1B program is too prescribed. The quotas seem whimsical and aren’t tied to actual demand for that year. Plus, they give too much weight to objective data without looking at who that person is and what they can offer. Many very capable open source developers don’t have a college degree and the program does not easily accommodate them. In addition, the process is costly for an employer to petition for the visa, and also for the candidate to hire attorneys and consultants to insure that their application is proper.
More Linux news
German semantic Web project seeks open-source experts – LinuxWorld, 08/20/07: Theseus, the German government-funded program to develop new semantic Web technologies, will launch a competition in November to attract talented software programmers, including experts from the open-source community.
Selling software that sells itself: An interview with Matt Asay – LinuxWorld, 08/16/07: Open source is changing not just how companies make software, but how they sell it. In a transcript of a recent interview on the LinuxWorld podcast, Alfresco’s Matt Asay explains the new sales cycle and the skills that today’s software sales people need to close deals.
SCO to partners, customers: It’s business as usual – LinuxWorld, 08/16/07: If the SCO Group’s future looks grim, CEO and President Darl McBride apparently hasn’t gotten the memo. In a letter to partners and customers filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday, McBride said SCO is still committed to doing business as usual even after the company was dealt a crushing blow in its ongoing litigation over Unix copyrights.
LinuxWorld Community
LinuxWorld Community, 08/21/07: When we talked to Matt Domsch about Linux driver support on the new Dell XPS M1330, we left out one important fact. Even though the company considered the availability of open-source Linux drivers for the laptop’s hardware, Dell doesn’t currently plan to sell Linux on the XPS M1330. So Linux driver support is driving the selection of hardware that goes into Dell’s Microsoft Windows products.
