21
4
For more on the divide debate, see Compaine (2001), and Jung, Qiu, and Kim (2001).
5
In a similar vein, in the early 1990s Apple articulated its marketing strategy to reach
black urban youths in public schools as a philanthropic one (Sterne, 2000).
6
The study looked at the following data: Washington State Employment Security
Department wage data reported for Computer Industries (Standard Industrial Codes 737),
wage data for the sub-industry of Prepackaged Software (SIC 7372), and wage data for
Help Supply Services (SIC 7363) for 1999. Supplemental interviews were also
conducted with workers from King County, the county in which Seattle is located. The
Worker Center’s study and the present analysis use “Seattle area” and “Puget Sound
region” interchangeably to signify the three counties surrounding Seattle: King, Pierce,
and Snohomish.
7
“IT workers” includes programmers, indexers, and data entry clerks in the IT industry
and in sectors ranging from aircraft manufacturing to government.
8
Eleven percent of Microsoft’s workers are agency temporaries (M. Courtney, personal
communication, July 3, 2002).
9
When Microsoft temps finish a project, if the time employed totals more than 364 days,
they must take a minimum 100-day “leave” before being rehired. Other companies have
one hundred day “leave” policies (M. Courtney, WashTech Organizer, personal
communication, July 3, 2002: Worker Center, 2001, p. 16).
10
M. Courtney (personal communication, September 9, 1999). Firms are still charging
conversion fees today (M. Courtney, personal communication, July 3, 2002).
11
The study’s authors recognize that racism exists in the IT industry although their
respondents did not discuss the matter.
12
Temporaries reported that they were not allowed to attend workshops informing them
of developments in their fields (Worker Center, 2001, p. 21).
13
Promoters have acknowledged difficulties in marketing new technologies to top
corporate executives. Fortune magazine’s promotion of “three technologies every boss
needs” (Alsop, 1996) implies that executives’ techno-obstinacy is a well-known obstacle
to the diffusion of new technology.
14
This debate considers the merits of the thesis that computer technologies boost
productivity (Lucas, 1999; Willcocks and Lester, 1999).
15
David’s (1990) comparison of the computer and dynamo provides an instructive
example of the technological lag argument.
16
Cassidy (2000) reports that starting in the mid 1990s, the US Department of Commerce
massaged the notion of “output” in the computer industry to include computer’s growing
power and quality. So although the computer industry reported final sales of $92.5
billion, Department statisticians used $245.9 billion to calculate the industry’s output.
Since one-third of IT’s contribution to productivity growth is attributable to hedonic
pricing, productivity drops back down to what it was before the supposed “miracle” of
the late-1990s. And in the forgotten days leading up to 9/11, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics revised productivity data downward because of overestimates of computer
software sales and consumer spending (Madrick, 2001).
Convention