Experiences with SamaSource
I heard about SamaSource at South by South West from @whiteafrican, @tmsruge, and some others at the Appfrica panel. Or, perhaps one of them mentioned it to me at Convio’s #nptech after party….?
Either way, SamaSource is an organization which aims to connect marginalized people with outsourced technical work. I’ve been working with developers and agencies through SamaSource for around 5 months, and it has been a positive experience. I wanted to share some thoughts on the subject.
The process works roughly as follows:
- Contact SamaSource, get into their system.
- Describe a piece of work or a skillset you need to find as accurately as possible – not getting into functional details, just in terms of matching work to a person or group.
- SamaSource suggests some firms, you interview them, and decide who to work with.
- SamaSource negotiates a rate and takes care of the paperwork, and also sets up a Basecamp project for you.
- You begin working with the SamaSource vendor, and SamaSource is there if you need anything.
I don’t believe you should expect to find top-notch technical expertise through SamaSource. That’s really not what they are about. If you need something complex or mission critical by the industry standards of first world web development, do it yourself with people you know and trust, or perhaps look into oDesk or eLance and aim above 4 stars.
You should also not seek to save money through SamaSource. That isn’t the point, just as you don’t invest in Kiva’s microloans for the sake of financial returns. The rates of SamaSource workers are low, but they are not below market. In a narrow sense, you should expect to get what you pay for. Though new to my eyes, the markets these workers are used to seem to have already honed in on sustainable rates for the performance they offer.
For Prelude Interactive, perhaps 10% of the work coming through our doors and performed in our projects is the kind of work that fits SamaSource vendors well. I’ve sent off Google Charts API work, QA tasks, XML parsing, form building, and application maintenance. Not all of it has been successful, and some had to be redone. Still, the kind of tasks that $100/hour US developers would deem scut work, someone in Uganda or India or Bolivia might view as their ticket into the world economy, out of poverty, and into a previously impenetrable socioeconomic strata.
I do wish that payment, feedback, vendor searching, and time logging were all as refined, easy, and featureful as they are on a site like oDesk. Also, if they are not already offering training materials on project management, ticket-based systems, estimated time, and the expectations of project managers, they really should. I think with time, SamaSource will figure out the right process and tools and probably become quite popular with the technology community.
By far the most unexpected benefit has been excellent practice at simple, clear communication. After a first few interviews on Skype and email, I came to realize that my English is riddled with idiom, coloquialism, and weird metaphors. Even worse, the “corporate speak” most of us practice is curiously circumspect, indirect, and filled with baffling phrases that carry little meaning, which serve mainly to cover our asses. It took some practice but I started having much better success using short, simple sentences and being very direct with what I wanted. Through a language barrier, directness is clarity, not pushiness.
So, if you’re reading this and you already work with freelancers, outsourced workers, or consultants, start to plan ahead and set aside tasks. Give SamaSource a try and see what happens. It has worked for us so far. While not perfect, I think SamaSource will improve rapidly. They already offer something very unique, and very good.
UPDATE: I forgot to mention that they do offer a Basecamp setup per client, which is a really super tool for collaboration and online project management. I opted to forgo this in favor of working in the sometimes frustrating Redmine that I run everything through for Prelude.
