The Tuesday, May 11th meeting of the Rocky Mountain Internet Users Group
(RMIUG) will feature a panel discussion called "Offshoring: The Truth behind
the Headlines."

Please note: we are open to adding another speaker to our panel. If you are
interested or know someone who should be presenting on this important topic,
please send an email to josh@... with Speaker Idea in the subject
line. Please describe what the additional presentation would cover.

Wasn't it only a few years ago that technology companies couldn't find
enough human capital? In 1999-2000, Congress increased the quota for H-1B
temporary work visas so that American companies can get the technology
talent they need to meet their market demands. It seemed that using foreign
talent provided an instantaneous (and near perfect) solution to manpower
problem: a limitless supply of highly educated and well-trained technology
workers overseas at a fraction of the price.

Well, the go-go 90s have yielded to the slow-go 00s and what seemed like a
solution is creating a new problem: Many companies are fully outsourcing
their technology work overseas. Called Offshoring, the process may help
parts of our economy expand but at a detriment to the American worker:
highly-skilled knowledge based work is being done by workers in other
countries. And the issue is pervasive as big technology companies such as
Dell, Sun Microsystems, and IBM are methodically taking pieces of their
business and Offshoring it overseas.

Our panel will discuss Offshoring and explain its advantages and its
disadvantages. We'll attempt to answer such questions as: What are the
pitfalls and dangers to consider if a company is considering offshoring?
Are there times when it's appropriate? What is the current state of this
trend and is there a general feeling that it will continue?


The following guest speakers will provide an interesting perspective on the
topic:
Jeff Finkelstein (jeff@...) is President of Customer
Paradigm, an email marketing and privacy consulting firm in Boulder.

Jeff's company uses offshore resources and will talk about the common
pitfalls and practices of using overseas workers in the high-tech space.

Finkelstein will share his company's successes and failures from using
off-shore programmers for client projects. Finkelstein will discuss what
type of high-tech projects / talent a company should and should not consider
outsourcing overseas, and will show how companies can calculate the true
cost of outsourcing -- including increased project management requirements
and cross-cultural communication issues.

If you're a web developer here in the Boulder/Denver area, Finkelstein will
teach you the top three things that you can do to today to make sure that
your position is not outsourced. If you're a business owner or someone
looking to have work done overseas, Jeff's personal experience may help you
decide whether and how to proceed.


John Leonard (jleonard@...) is an attorney at Fairfield & Woods, PC
and concentrates his legal practice in commercial transactions.

John will discuss the legal issues in Offshoring including Contract
Management and Intellectual Property Management. John will help explain
many of the legal pitfalls to Offshoring and how it may not be for every (or
even most) companies.

His emphasis is on assisting businesses engaged in all aspects of software
development and electronic commerce, both domestically and internationally.
He has represented a number of technology companies in areas relating to
intellectual property, entity formation and governance, mergers and
acquisitions, internet operation, secured transactions, and international
business transactions.

URL's of interest:
-------------------
Customer Paradigm, http://www.customerparadigm.com
Fairfield & Woods, PC, http://www.fwlaw.com/

The meeting is Tuesday, May 11th from 7:00 - 9:00 pm (with optional 6:30 pm
start for refreshments and informal networking). The meeting will be held at
The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) at 1850 Table Mesa Drive
in Boulder. To get to NCAR from the Boulder Turnpike (US 36) or Broadway (US
93), take Table Mesa Drive west towards the mountains for approximately 2.5
miles into the foothills. NCAR is at the top of the hill. For door-to-door
driving directions, go to MapQuest (http://www.mapquest.com/), click on
Driving Directions, enter your starting address, NCAR's address, and voila!
Park in the NCAR lot, go in the main door, and ask the guard to point you to
meeting, which is held in the main auditorium, right off the lobby. The
meeting is free and open to the public, but we may pass the hat to help
defray expenses.

Our meeting location seats about 120 people. That is usually enough room to
accommodate all attendees, but it's impossible for us to predict how many
people will show up for any given meeting. Seating is always on a
first-come, first serve basis, and in the event of more attendees than
seats, we won't be able to admit additional people into the auditorium after
all seats are filled.

Thanks to our three sponsors who help make RMIUG meetings happen:
---------------------------------------------------------------
MicroStaff (www.microstaff.com) which provides Creative and Technical Talent
for Web, Interactive Media, Marketing Communications and Software
Development projects, is the sponsor of food and beverages for RMIUG
meetings.

ONEWARE (http://www.ONEWARE.com) -- a Colorado-based software company that
provides semi-custom web-based applications, sponsors the RMIUG meeting
minutes.

Copy Diva (http://www.copydiva.com) which provides marketing project
management, marketing communications consulting, and web content development
is the AV sponsor for RMIUG.

Consultants and companies are invited to bring Internet-related Product
information, brochures, and business cards which will be displayed on an
information table.

There are email mailing lists set up for this group. To subscribe or
unsubscribe, see http://www.rmiug.org/maillist.html You can also reach the
RMIUG "Executive" Committee at rmiug-comm@.... Our web site is at
http://www.rmiug.org/


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Please note that RMIUG is hosted at NCAR and we are their guests. NCAR has
security regulations in effect that we must follow in order to use the
facility. If any RMIUG attendee is unwilling to follow these simple
regulations, I would ask that he or she not attend and instead read the
minutes after the meeting.

Here are the NCAR security policies that must be followed:

1. No weapons.
2. Must sign in at front desk and provide name.
3. Cooperate with security folks including providing ID if requested.
4. We are guests of NCAR so cooperation and courtesy are expected when
dealing with NCAR staff.

If there are any questions or concerns with this policy, please contact me
directly.

Thanks, Josh Zapin (josh@...).
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