This has to fall in the wacky-ideas’ category. Dian has an interesting post (cross posted here) about Roger Green and David Cook seem like your run-of-the-mill high tech execs – well dressed, well spoken, bright guys. That is, until they tell you their business plan. Dian heard it at a party at the Gartner conference, then did a quick interview with them. And then you have to wonder, are these guys whacked?
Their basic idea is to take a used cruise ship, plant it in international waters three miles off the coast of El Segundo, near LA, people it with 600 of the brightest software engineers they can find around the world (both men and women), and run a 24-hour-a-day programming shop, thereby avoiding H-1B visa hassles while still exploiting offshore labor cost arbitrage and completing development projects in half the time they’d take onshore or offshore.
“As more people have run the [offshore] gauntlet and found the joys of traveling to India coach class and having three weeks of stuff on their desk when they come back, [they discover] it’s much more disruptive than they ever imagined it would be,” explains Mr. Green.
I would one might want a list of those engineers and try and find out what they have been smoking? What do you think?