The infomercenaries who think they can increase their earning power through for-hire short-term engagements will also be disappointed. If they are hired for their specific skills, as is likely to be the case, their wages will be made up of pay for work hours and an allowance for depreciation of their knowledge assets. The company hiring them will have no reason to finance their learning new skills. The infomercenaries will therefore have to look at their short-term wages as an exploitation of their accumulated know-how, which they will have to fund out of their own pocket to avoid technological obsolescence.
Predictor: Strassmann, Paul
Prediction, in context:In a 1995 article for American Programmer, Paul Strassman speculates that information technology workers will not become “guns for hire” or, as he calls the proposed freelancers, “infomercenaries.” He writes: ”The infomercenaries who think they can increase their earning power through for-hire short-term engagements will also be disappointed. If they are hired for their specific skills, as is likely to be the case, their wages will be made up of pay for work hours and an allowance for depreciation of their knowledge assets. The company hiring them will have no reason to finance their learning new skills. The infomercenaries will therefore have to look at their short-term wages as an exploitation of their accumulated know-how, which they will have to fund out of their own pocket to avoid technological obsolescence.”
Date of prediction: August 1, 1995
Topic of prediction: Economic structures
Subtopic: Employment
Name of publication: American Programmer
Title, headline, chapter name: The Internet: A Way of Outsourcing Infomercenaries?
Quote Type: Direct quote
Page number or URL of document at time of study:
http://www.strassmann.com/pubs/infomerc.html
This data was logged into the Elon/Pew Predictions Database by: Anderson, Janna Quitney