A Dutch Life

I can’t wait for this to hit the web, when it does, it will give people everywhere access to information that was previously seen by only a lucky select few.

Take a look at the video, as it says it all, the universe like you have never seen it before.

TED | Talks | Roy Gould, Curtis Wong: WorldWide Telescope (video)

zevenseas Web Site
My zevenseas Blog
My zevenseas Launch Post

zevenseas began in the middle of last year as a series of chats between myself and Hans Blaauw. Who is Hans? Well, he is the guy who used to blog about SharePoint at http://www.points2share.com, a site Petra stumbled across while looking for my SharePoint blog at http://www.point2share.com (I have no idea why she was looking for it!). Spot the difference? After some discussion about lawsuits and take down notices we agreed instead to start working together, with him inviting me to join a team working on a large SharePoint project.

Hans is a dedicated and experienced entrepreneur, having started a number of diverse companies, always with the goal of doing more for people via technology. We hit it off immediately, and while my mind was on other things (remember “The Internet Address Book”) he persisted in reminding me of the opportunities that lie in a SharePoint world that was growing at an incredible rate.

I think it was after a Jazz Festival here in Amsterdam that we sat down and talked seriously, but modestly, leading my mind to begin to slowly switch it’s focus. The Internet Address Book had run it’s course, it came close, but in the end I needed to decide when enough was enough. During my time on the SharePoint project with Hans I also recharged, growing to love the new features, rather than fear what they meant to my level of expertise with the product. That fear was surprising, even to me, but after 10+ years of version churn, each time coping with that massive and overnight shift from expert to amateur, I needed a break.

In the 6 months after Microsoft two key things occurred to me that remain very important:

1) The inner Entrepreneur was awoken. When I was a kid I always felt I would start my own company, some day, I think it was only the incredible opportunity to work at Microsoft, at such a young age (22), that repressed it. The step into the unknown, the taking of that first big risk, and while doing it watching others follow their own ideas and enjoying it along the way (Thomas, the Wakoopa guys, the Freshheads guys, and the Fleck/Next Web guys) was so very good for me. While I’m now in a slightly different business to all of them, the basics are the same. Thanks folks.

2)  Initially though, I still lacked an important characteristic, I didn’t have the confidence in my own ideas to actually fund them. This was a mistake, I should have, I wish I did. I remain convinced, perhaps delusionally, that the ideas I brought to “The Internet Address Book” were good ones, and ones that were, if not ahead,  then on the leading edge of their time. The space now of course is incredibly crowded, but it wasn’t then. (I think I’ll dig up my old blog posts and sit them up here for memories sake). Anyway, this time around, with Hans, I’m taking risk a little bit further, I’m backing up the idea and doing everything I can to do it right. It still might not work, but a commitment of 110% certainly gives it every possible opportunity.

Already I’m feeling a little uneasy about this post, not particularly comfortable with people doing any level of public self-analysis, especially me. So, if you allow me, I’m just going to consider these my thoughts, its a look at how my perspective has changed over the last year, post-Microsoft, and how my outlook on business and career is now different.

The main reason I made the decision to leave Microsoft was to begin exercising skills that remained unused throughout my time there, I worried that they would waste away. For whatever reason, during my time at the company, I never had a discussion about a move into management, about contributing to the company as a developer of people, as a strategic thinker. My constant moving I’m sure didn’t help. Anyway, I reached the point where I felt the things I was, or could be, best at were not actually being employed in my day to day job. With zevenseas I’ve been able to manufacture something that does, perfectly. We have a great team, who I enjoy spending time with, and with whom I can learn from and share experience with. We decide together what we do, and more importantly what we don’t. When I sit in a meeting with partners or customers, I have no parameters in which to work within, and no opportunities that I have to watch pass by. This means more responsibility than I have ever felt before, even more that at Microsoft, which I took very seriously indeed. When I take that deep breath at the end of each day, the exercise I’ve done feels good.

The mistakes I’m making now are the good kind, the kind you make with all the best intentions, not the kind you make when your mind is elsewhere, when you want to be somewhere else.

So what is zevenseas? Its a boutique consultancy focused on SharePoint. Its about helping people work better together, helping business leaders make the most of their technology investments. Its about pulling together a team of professionals who are doing it because they enjoy it, and enjoy it while they do it. We are moving consulting beyond the individual, operating always as a team of experts. We are constantly improving and creating, dedicating a day a week to ideas and sharing experiences, leaving a maximum of 4 days onsite. We are returning to the days of high value consulting, not body-shopping, where skills, talent and communication skills are more important than being able to warm a seat.

Thank you zevenseas, thanks to the great team of guys that has pulled together and made this possible. I already feel a huge sense of pride at what we have been able to do in such a short period of time, and I’m impatient to look back at the year ahead!

Front left: Mark van Lunenburg, Back Left: Robin Meuré, Middle: Hans Blaauw, Right: Me (yes, I’m getting a haircut)

I upgraded all my machines to Vista SP1 last week. It has had a big, and very positive impact on all of them, in particular my notebook. I have been really disappointed in this little machine, while it looks great, Vistas performance on it broke my heart.

With SP1 though it feels like a new machine….

This has been THE topic of conversation in the blogosphere, and mainstream business media, since it was announced. I’m still in favour, and think it offers one of the only possible paths toward a serious competitor to Google in Search and Online Advertising. After all, fundamentally, this is what this deal is about.

One thing that has amazed me is this announcement by Google on their official blog  (and in a press release). It strikes me as an incredibly amateur and transparent first response to the news that their two biggest competitors may be combining. It reads like the sort of speculation a junior reporter would put together for a fast deadline on http://news.com.

Anyway, to keep it all in perspective, these are big companies, doing big company things, to other big companies. Their motives are of the purest sort, utter self interest (fortunately, pleasing customers is also in their self interest). In this regard, Google (“Do no evil”) is no different, and while I’m on the subject, neither is Apple. I wish these companies would stop claiming the high ground of Openness (like OpenSocial I presume they mean! yeah, very open).

Technologies trend toward natural monopolies by their very nature, whether that is High Definition video formats, Operating Systems, Advertising Platforms or iTunes music stores. The good news is that things move so fast, and are moving ever faster, that any dominant position is transitional. More than that, it is actually biased against the incumbent, and if IBM wasn’t a good example, then Microsoft certainly is.

For Google to speculate that:

“Could a combination of the two take advantage of a PC software monopoly to unfairly limit the ability of consumers to freely access competitors’ email, IM, and web-based services?”

Amazes me on two fronts, first, that they expect us to believe they would not/are not doing the same thing (especially given their existing Internet monopoly in Advertising), and second, that they of all companies think this is possible. The Internet is not new, and neither is Microsoft’s monopoly, if this were going to happen, it would have by now. The purchase of Yahoo is not going to suddenly make the PC more relevant.

So, Google, next time, put these posts through some time of review process huh? Could I recommend Microsoft SharePoint? We can help <grin>

Videos like this would be made every year for the Microsoft employee conferences, the name of which evolved from MGS/MTB to MGB to TechReady. Surprisingly I have not seen many of them make their way outside of Microsoft.

My favourite one from memory was watching Bill tinker with a computer attached to a toaster via USB. After some seconds, the toast popped up, at which point he jumped out of his chair and did a little victory dance while walking down a corridor with a troupe of geek backing dancers!

I also remember during the antitrust trials a short clip of both Steve and Bill in the dock pointing at each other, while looking very innocent and mouthing “It was him! It was him!”…..

I do miss that!

Just got some time to watch the Bill and Steve interview conducted around a week ago at the All Things Digital conference. It really has to be watched. Regardless of how you feel about either of them, their companies or even computers, it is amazing to see these two true visionaries shoot the breeze. They seemed very relaxed, joking often, and its obvious they hold a great deal of respect for each other.

I really enjoyed it, maybe because I’m one of the PC generation, and in a little way it feels like I have been along for the ride with them. Its incredible to think how far we have come.

One final thing that really stands out to me is that ubergeeks make great rich people. They both come across almost humble, constantly referring to the great people they worked with and how lucky they feel they have been. It is certainly quite a contrast to the modern day celebrity, royalty and I might say any number of “Internet Stars” who frankly just don’t compare to these two statesmen. Of course this could also be a factor of wisdom…..

Thanks for the memories Bill and Steve, not to mention all this information at my fingertips.

My favourite of the videos

When Two Worlds Collide: Gates vs. Jobs, the Complete Videos – Gizmodo

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VOLYL2JLPg]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZtSvyZsP1M]

Darren, was that you?

For what its worth Steve and Terry I would do it….

Link to Microsoft and Yahoo enter talks to combat Google – International Herald Tribune