Code... exciting and new...

Come aboard, we're expecting you! (via InformationWeek)

Two California entrepreneurs are developing an IT services business plan that reads like a CIO's paradise: sharply lower IT prices coupled with easy access to software and engineering outsourcing developers just a short boat ride away.

It's the "Code Boat," a plan by David Cook and Roger Green, the founders of SeaCode. Their venture calls for staffing a cruise ship three miles off the Southern California coast with customer IT specialists and then making the ship available to IT headquarters staffers through a short water taxi ride.

What are some advantages of this rather literal take on "offshoring?"

[The promoters] believe they can skirt H-1B visa regulations by categorizing their specialists as "seamen" and who would therefore be able to visit the U.S. mainland on shore passes. They will do a significant amount of hiring among non-U.S. lands to sign up top experts.

Green said, for instance, that SeaCode will look for back office and SAP experts in India, network engineers in China, and embedded developers in Russia. Non-American employees would likely receive much less than their counterparts on the mainland. Still, he added, SeaCode plans to hire plenty of American experts, noting that about half of job applicants so far are from Americans.

You know, it's not often that you see a business plan that relies on defying immigration law, maritime law and union regulations simultaneously. You magnificent bastards! My hat's off to you.

Related: InformationWeek's Patricia Keefe blogs about The Code Boat (among other things.) The really interesting and sad bits are the comments on her blog entry, written by InformationWeek readers (a fair sampling of IT workers of a certain age, I'd wager.)

Also related: Theme from "The Love Boat" (2.1MB WAV)