If you were considering spending a quarter of a million dollars to have some contractors build you a house that you planned to live in for 10 years, would you prefer someone who was local or someone from out of state? Okay, it's not a perfect analogy, but there's some truth in it.
Moreover, it as absolutely NOT THE SAME thing to have a team of developers working together under one roof where they can easily and instantly get together, ask quick questions, pow-wow over a drawing on board, develop commraderie and so on when you compare it to trying to do the same thing with a team that's geographically dispersed and across multiple time zones. Sorry, but it is NOT the same. That isn't to say that you can't get the job with remote staff. But IMHO, you can't get the same kind of relationship and timely communication that is often key to getting something done and time and within budget. One last point. Trust is not something that I'm accustomed to just dishing out an endless supply of to whomever asks for it. Not when it comes to me putting my company, dollars and *my* reputation on the line. It's something that someone must earn. In *some* cases, that require me getting to know them and see how they work before they get my trust. I'm not speaking out from a theoretical standpoint, I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who has had a very negative experience trusting a remote developer based on his rep. All it took was one. I don't believe that all projects require local developers...but some do. --Leon -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Thursday, December 21, 2006 7:41 AM To: CF-Jobs-Talk Subject: Where are the Los Angeles Developers? I'll echo many of the other responses...why is being local important? --------- Daily face to face interaction with clients in an agile development environment. No one can argue that away and everyone of my clients pays for that premium. I found that more projects in the million $ plus arena require in-person developers than don't. Also I used to work with secure government systems that may not be accessed in remote facilities that aren't secured by US law. And by secured, I mean armed guards 24/7. In Washington, DC it's getting harder to find office buildings without an armed guards and often metal detectors. Telecommuter's stolen laptop with thousands of SSNs recovered: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062900 352.html Los Angeles never developed a programming industry like DC, SF, etc. But to say that it's a matter of housing economics is silly given that DC and San Francisco are close to or surpass LA in terms of housing costs and have the largest programming communities and groups of IT contracts in the country. When houses in my childhood neighborhood topped the $2 million mark I was surprised, but it's supply and demand, some neighborhoods are in-demand and people will pay a premium to live there. Don ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Create robust enterprise, web RIAs. Upgrade & integrate Adobe Coldfusion MX7 with Flex 2 http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;56760587;14748456;a?http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/?sdid=LVNU Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:3216 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Jobs-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.11
