Large Hadron Collider and US Immigration Reform

Last week i had a followup meeting with CloudAnt and RackSpace after visiting their office at San Antonio, Texas back in September during SAS JMP conference. And as usual in this blog it triggered lots of dormant memories...

It is very interesting how little sometimes needed to spot "winner, winner, chicken dinner" - catchy phrase from movie "21" that was based on famous MIT Blackjack team. Back in summer, intrigued by the hype around BigData, i went to NoSQL Now conference in San Jose, California. One of session with introduction of exhibitors had every sale pitch clocked by running down timer that would turn off microphone at the end. Presentations were average until one presenter stood out by making joke about teleportation of information. I have no clue why joke was funny, especially considering physics terminology. But next participant, after mentioning his MIT background, continued and countered the joke by bringing even more complex terminology from physics. By reaction of original author of the teleportation joke i understood immediately who is "winner, winner, chicken dinner" - it was MIT graduate Mike Miller from CloudAnt.

But this story is not about CloudAnt, but about how CERN and Large Hadron Collider - one that triggered End-of-World fears back in 2008 - changed my vision of US immigration reform. 

Few years ago during Oracle OpenWorld I met Anton Topurov - database administrator/manager from CERN with Russian-Bulgarian roots. During quick chat our discussion pivoted into immigration process in Switzerland - one of the most conservative country in terms of allowing immigrants in. Interestingly enough, based on input from Anton, immigration law is not that restrictive. It is nature of the law that makes it restrictive - every immigration case is voted by citizens of Canton where applicant lives. This process of making case to residents of community drives true perception of conservatism of immigration to Switzerland.

Later that night i got thinking - what if USA would have same immigration rule where County residents would have vote on each immigrant. That thought led to realization that i was doing nothing for local community. I lived in USA as H1B temporary worker on purely "What Is In It for Me" basis.

Few weeks later, after return back to Knoxville, TN, i received corporate email asking for volunteers to become mentors at TNachives - last dollar college scholarship with mentoring support. Thanks to Switzerland I volunteered and started 1st year as mentor for TNachives, effectively starting chain reaction from "What is in it for Me" to "What is in it for We", and recently, with participation in Boy Scouts of America, to "What is in it for my Kids"... But that is another story.

Couple days ago i read article on Mashable about "Hackathon for Immigration" and could not think of better way to reform US Immigration Law as to let residents of US counties vote for each immigration applicant. It will drive enormous support from wanna-be US residents into good cause projects at local communities and build solid foundation of sustainable economy and country - culture of giving back. 

best regards,
Roman Havrylyak

11/24/2013


p.s. TNachives is still looking for volunteers to be mentors; due date is extended till November 27th. There is no better way to celebrate Thanksgiving as to volunteer in good cause that will allow you to harvest lots of "thank you" later. Pay forward by Thank you forward!