July 21st, 2008
Updated:Will social media lead to user generated unemployment?
[Updated with video.]
I’m spending a few days at Fortune Magazine’s invite-only Brainstorm conference. It’s an excellent lineup of speakers and the audience is full of top tech industry luminaries.
Brad Smith, CEO of Intuit, was just on stage and he spoke about trying to harness the web and the tremendous number of users, around 50 million.
He said he had asked his managers to figure out what salaries can be cut because users are volunteering to do those jobs for free. Why should Intuit pay salaries when users are doing a far better job than Intuit staff?
Mr Smith said that users are providing better answers to key questions than Intuit staff. He is looking to try to harness that resource in many ways.
Will we start to see user generated unemployment? Is this one of the rewards of social media? Is this a good thing?
Will users stop volunteering their time and knowledge if their work will cause job losses? Especially during a time of recession.
Will Intuit pass on savings in labor costs to users?
What do you think?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=graJpc-Bea0
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. He also writes at Silicon Valley Watcher. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.
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