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In reply to:

If I understand juped correctly, the SIAI hands projects to editors, who go off for a while then come back with a finished product. Nobody is monitoring editors to know how many hours they do in fact work. And it's not very relevant, since someone who works half as much but twice as fast will take the same time. So paying by the hour doesn't seem to make much sense, even assuming trustworthy reporting.

I'm not sure how things have been done in the past, but as of last week I'm in charge of the document production team and have access to editors timesheets.

I'd also suggest that you are overestimating the variance of speed (holding quality of the product constant) of workers who stick with the team.

Finally, tasks aren't always as clearcut as I think you imagine (not every task is, go convert this document and get it back to me) so that would complicate paying in a non-hourly fashion. Additionally clear cut tasks might vary in difficulty—converting one document might be easier then another—which means assigning a dollar figure isn't a trivial task and comes with it's own costs.

See comment in full context

[Applications Closed] The Singularity Institute is hiring remote LaTeX editors

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Jul 29, 2012

The Singularity Institute has recently made the transition to a LaTeX based document production workflow for its publications and republished its existing research papers. However, there is still much work to be done and we need more remote LaTeX editors. Some projects currently in the queue include converting both The Sequences and Facing the Singularity into LaTeX based books.

As with other remote positions, pay is hourly and starts at $14/hr but will increase if you produce a good product.

Perks:

Work flexible hours: Complete your work in few large chunks or many small ones—at 03:00 or 18:00—it's up to you.
Work from wherever you please: your home (maybe even in bed), your local coffee shop, a hostel in Nepal, whatever.
Age and credentials are irrelevant; only product matters.
Make money while contributing to The Singularity Institute.

Requirements:

Experience creating and typesetting LaTeX based documents.
Good attention to detail (this is more important than being a LaTeX wiz).
Ability to work autonomously and set your own schedule.

If you're interested, apply here. If you aren't sure you're qualified, err on the side of applying.

Edit: Applications have been closed.

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.

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I didn't have a specific time in mind, but I'd like to avoid turn over as much as possible. As such individuals who are likely to stick around for longer are preferred.

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Will the LaTeX document-classes be made available for use outside the Singularity Institute?

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Will the LaTeX document-classes be made available for use outside the Singularity Institute?

No. The Singularity Institute (ie Luke) considers the document-class to be SIAI intellectual property. We have invested many hours making the pdf output high quality, standards conforming and distinctive. The template is hosted securely and will only be distributed to those producing papers for publication by SIAI.

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Is the purpose behind this decision to prevent others from putting out fake SIAI papers, to deny the benefit of SIAI's effort to potential competitors, or something else?

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Is the purpose behind this decision to prevent others from putting out fake SIAI papers, to deny the benefit of SIAI's effort to potential competitors, or something else?

Don't know. I'm just a minion! I can only speculate based on what reasoning I would use in Luke's place.

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It's analogous to not handing out your letterhead in the days before copiers.

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When your letterhead is awesome! ;)

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Well, that's a clear answer at least.

Of course, distribution outside SIAI is not the same as putting it in the public domain, so technically you'd not be giving up your intellectual property, it's just about what you allow others to do with it. I can understand SIAI does not want to dillute its brand by having others re-using the exact templates -- but maybe it would be possible to publish a sub-template, something without the SIAI-specifics?

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Has the document-class changed significantly from the original template? Because a lot of those got distributed without much/anything in the way of IP notices.

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If I were not currently in a job that forbids me from taking on outside work, I would be the first to apply.

However, I'm currently in a job that forbids me from taking on outside work.

I have offered in the past to volunteer some time to this sort of thing, but I get that coordinating volunteers is harder than hiring people.

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I have offered in the past to volunteer some time to this sort of thing, but I get that coordinating volunteers is harder than hiring people.

Volunteers are welcome (so long as you have enough time that liaising with you is easier than just doing it ourselves). Go ahead and contact Malo!

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Aleksei_Riikonen

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I have offered in the past to volunteer some time to this sort of thing, but I get that coordinating volunteers is harder than hiring people.

Sounds like something that happened during earlier years, when the SI people that one ran into when volunteering were different than currently.

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Sounds like something that happened during earlier years,

This January/February.

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Regardless, If you'd like to volunteer, I'd be happy to see if we can work something out.

Send me a PM if you're interested.

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I'll determine how much available free time I have after the fall semester starts, and PM you then. If I don't, feel free to sic the karma hounds on me. :)

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I am curious, how does it work out as an hourly-rate thing?

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Sorry, I don't understand the question. Could you elaborate?

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If I understand juped correctly, the SIAI hands projects to editors, who go off for a while then come back with a finished product. Nobody is monitoring editors to know how many hours they do in fact work. And it's not very relevant, since someone who works half as much but twice as fast will take the same time. So paying by the hour doesn't seem to make much sense, even assuming trustworthy reporting.

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I'm not sure how things have been done in the past, but as of last week I'm in charge of the document production team and have access to editors timesheets.

I'd also suggest that you are overestimating the variance of speed (holding quality of the product constant) of workers who stick with the team.

Finally, tasks aren't always as clearcut as I think you imagine (not every task is, go convert this document and get it back to me) so that would complicate paying in a non-hourly fashion. Additionally clear cut tasks might vary in difficulty—converting one document might be easier then another—which means assigning a dollar figure isn't a trivial task and comes with it's own costs.

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There may be other (notably legal) reasons to prefer to offer hourly wages rather than piece work. And if you're expecting your workers will misreport their hours, you have other problems!

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Basically, how do you count the hours?

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Each employee has a timesheet (on Google Docs) where they report their hours along with a description of what they spent those hours on. This doesn't allow for fine grained analysis of how effective each worker is (or if they are embellishing slightly), but it's enough to ensure that any substantial miss reporting does not occur.

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I see. As an EVE player, I know all about Google Docs timesheets...

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