Steven Veltema   [11.07.06 05:53 PM]

I suppose you have to limit the scope of the visualizations somewhere, but are the East Asian markets so small that they don't show up?

Roger Magoulas   [11.07.06 06:23 PM]

The source data from oDesk did not include East Asian markets. We look forward to when we can get more east asian data.

We suppressed a few technology topics if the number of projects was below a cutoff to make the display easier to read.

Doug K   [11.08.06 09:17 AM]

oDesk is not in any sense a representation of an efficient market. The buyers have all the power, the providers none. The buyers are generally companies operating in affluent societies, protected by capital, environmental and labor laws: the providers are from failed societies (Russia, India) with no protections.
I see average rates for programmers of $10/hour, which is rather less than the average janitor or retail sales worker makes in the USA. I can't afford to buy any books on that salary. As Keynes observed, "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

Dave McClure   [11.08.06 12:01 PM]

Doug... i think you're painting the providers as victims, when that's absolutely not the case.

if you look at someone like alexey in russia below, you'll see his hourly rate has gone up more than 100% in the past year:
https://my.odesk.com/console/g/view_profile.php?key=e5bb265d074a599f

i certainly don't feel that's evidence of any "victims of failed societies"... in fact, if anything i challenge you to find me the average person anywhere in the world who has doubled their salary in just a year.

oDesk is about empowering people around the world to do great technical work at a market-clearing price for their services. while there's obvious value to folks here in the US doing work in the same office, similarly there's value in people doing work remotely at a substantial wage relative to their own local markets.

seriously... whatever you think of Russia's market, you think India is a failed society? Mittal Steel just bought Arcelor, a major European steel producer. Hindustan Lever is a huge company in India. ICICI is the Citibank of India (and btw, Citibank in India isn't doing badly either).

many of our providers are starting their own businesses with other programmers who are their friends and employees, to create "the American Dream" in their own country.

i'm certain they aren't feeling like victims, and the oDesk platform is a great enable for them to create jobs & income for themselves and their communities, as well as helping startups and other companies who need great talent get the job done.

JOAN CONNOLLY   [11.13.06 06:26 PM]

PLEASE HELP ME UNDERSTAND HOW MANY PARTIAL BIRTH ABORTIONS HAVE OCCURED. I NEED TO KNOW NUMBERS.
I HAVE BEEN IN THE HEALTH CARE PROFESSION FOR 20 PLUS YEARS AND HAVE NEVER HEARD OF SUCH ATROCITIES REGARDING ABORTIONS IN THE THIRD TRIMESTER, USING FORCEPTS AND BREAKING THE NECK OF A TRIMESTER FULLY DEVELOPED FETUS.
THIS IS SUCH AN OUTRAGOUS DESCRIPTION OF A PERSONAL CHOICE OF A RESPONSIBLE WOMAN, MANY OF THEM MARRIED, OR IN OTHER IRRESPONSIBLE RELATIONSHIPS, FROM RELIGIOUS,POLITICAL PROFESSIONAL AND SOMETIMES YOUNG AND UNAWARE CHILDREN.
PLEASE HELP US UNDERSTAND THIS MISCONCEPTION.
I HAVE BEEN CONCERNED

JOAN CONNOLLY REP.

Jeof   [11.15.06 09:19 AM]

without looking too deeply at it all, you might want to make sure that divided box map you have a screen shot of isn't an infringement on US Patent 6,583,791 by Smartmoney - which covers they're market map of the same basic visualization.

Tris   [12.30.06 08:28 AM]

Check www.freelr.com which is a new Social Networking site for webmasters and Programmers.

While sites like elance, guru, rentacoder, odesk all charge for connecting webmasters with programmers Freelr is a free alternative which is easier to use and creates a more exciting user experience. With Freelr users can interact freely with each other in an open-market, which is impossible with the other sites mentioned.....

Sergey   [03.13.07 08:51 AM]

******************
First, they announced the oDesk Online Testing service production launch. Over 100 free tests are available in Ajax, PHP, MySQL, .NET, Java, and XML. More than 1,400 developers have been tested so far. I wonder how this will affect the hourly rates on oDesk.
*****************************

This definitely affects hourly rates. I passed 34 tests (2007, Mar,13 - oDesk record). Some buyers do filter out providers by the number of tests passed. I do receive project invitations from buyers who think this means something.

Being able to choose a buyer you can choose more interesting project and also (not that important) better rate.

I'm posting this message because I?d like to thank O'Reilly for the great books which helped me passing the tests.

I would rank O'Reilly first place among other houses with few exceptions for some MS Press titles.

Thanks guys, you are doing great job.

Sergey

Ukraine

Goodby.Yellow.Brick.Road@Gmail.com

Eddie   [04.25.07 10:43 AM]

This is the death of computer science in the USA since programmers in America can't make the payments on their student loans with the rates that are paid on oDesk. If American kids needed just one more reason to not pursue a college education, this is it.