[EAS]Window Maids

[pjk]

Subject:   Window Maids

(from NewsScan Daily, 19 November 2003)

THESE MAIDS DO WINDOWS
Domestic servants in Hong Kong are doing more than just cleaning
house for their employers. They're venturing into high-tech
maintenance, performing such helpful functions as removing software
viruses and cleaning out spam. It's "more fun than washing dishes,"
says one maid, who got her training at a Hong Kong computer school
whose student body is largely made up of other maids in a city
where most middle-class families have full-time domestic  help. In
fact, a maids-only computer course offered by the Hong Kong YMCA 
has proven so popular that the number of classes has ballooned to 11
from one since the program was first introduced in 1994. Many of
the students report being called on to do spreadsheets for
household budgets, design and maintain family Web sites, and
perform Web searches to help the children with their homework.
Meanwhile, the expansion of duties has been a boon for busy execs.
One high-tech entrepreneur whose maid takes care of all his home
computer maintenance says, "the last thing I want to do is look at
[a computer] some more when I get home."
(Wall Street Journal 19 Nov 2003)
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB106919524545380300,00.html (sub req'd)

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Not, not the Hamburg red-light district. Much more charming than
that. It does have IT outsourcing implications. The IT organizations
in American organizations and institutions seldom provide house call
services.  --PJK