Offshoring observers square off

Sick of getting opinions about offshoring filtered through the media? Here's your chance to hear with your own ears some significant voices in the debate over shipping work abroad.

A Webcast is available of an offshore outsourcing discussion earlier this week involving John McCarthy, the Forrester Research analyst famous for predicting more than 3 million services jobs will head overseas, and Norm Matloff, a University of California, Davis professor and long-time advocate for software programmers. Rounding out the speakers were David Foote, president of compensation research Foote Partners, and Dean Lane, chief executive of software company Varitools.

The title of the event was "The big debate: Will offshore outsourcing positively or negatively affect the U.S. economy, your company and your job?"

Technology media firm TechTarget hosts the Webcast, which is sponsored by IBM. (IBM has been both hiring in the United States and moving work overseas.)

You can hear comments from the horses' mouths thanks to the Webcast, but you do have to jump through some hoops: an extensive registration process is required.