[StBernard] Microsoft Knowledge Base : Made in China

[Westley Annis]

Dan Gillespie

Microsoft Corp. is offshoring more jobs to China. Writers and editors of the
Knowledge Base are being replaced by writers and editors in Shanghai. The
first to be laid off were the editorial staff, 10 full time employees of
Microsoft. Last January, when Microsoft announced the layoff of 1,400
people, these 10 were among them. Highly skilled, experienced and
knowledgeable people that Bill Gates has said can't be found in America
anymore. The announcement continued to tell us that eventually 5,000 would
be let go, "Victims of the recession." 

We have to set the clock back 6 more months to discover the kernel of
information that grew into the plan that is being executed. Last summer, in
June, Microsoft received a report from an outside firm that described a
general dissatisfaction with Knowledge Base. I can't tell you whether the
dissatisfaction expressed by consumers was directed at the Knowledge Base
itself or the products the articles are written about because I have not
seen the report. To my knowledge, the report has not been widely circulated
but the findings were announced internally. Microsoft, has interpreted the
report's findings in such a way that make it feasible to end all writing and
editing of the Knowledge Base by people in this country and utilize
resources elsewhere.

Transition began immediately. All Knowledge content was put on hold, and
categorized by priority. With that done the entire editorial staff could be
let go in the first round of lay-offs in January, without prior notice. A
team of vendors, 12 in all, was left in place to finish and publish any
articles remaining. The Chinese had taken over writing some articles
previously, with Microsoft standards being assured by the editorial staff in
correcting English as a second language, avoiding legal complications and
other issues. What instructions were the 12 remaining people given when
taking over this task? None.

After the surprise news of the release of the editors, no one was available
to help or advise. "We just kept doing the job," a member of the team told
me. "We were left to figure it out on our own, and there were tasks left
undone by the former editors. We couldn't even get a reply to an email
asking what to do with them." 

The transition of the work to China will be completed by the end of May, and
the remaining editorial team will be reduced from 10 people to 2 people at
that time. After that, all writing and editing will be done in Shanghai,
China at a fraction of the cost.

We can't say that this doesn't matter because we're only talking about 10
people, or 12 people. It isn't the number of people; it's the fact that they
are people, families with lives to live, bills to pay and expectations for
the future. The monster here is the corporation, all corporations. Made from
legal ether and now endowed with the rights and privileges of person-hood.
Eternal and omnipotent, they don't have any love except for themselves and
money. They no longer have national identities now that they are "Global."
They have become the feudal lords and we are the serfs. We can't save any of
these jobs because the corporations have written the laws of the land to
favor them and detract from ordinary citizens. We can't turn to our
government because in-human corporations have bought and paid for it. We
can't expect the main stream news sources to report on it because the
corporations own them too. 

"What hurts one, hurts us all" and we have all been hurt by corporate greed.