you want to start something?

Been a little while since I ranted about our Redmond friends.

Earlier this year…

Microsoft Corp. reported … a profit of 1.32 billion US dollars for its third fiscal quarter ended March 31, 2004, down 38 percent from the 2.14 billion dollars for same quarter a year earlier. Microsoft said its revenue for the third quarter increased to 9. 18 billion dollars, up 17 percent from the 7.84 billion dollars for the same period in the prior year.

Apple today announced financial results for its fiscal 2009 first quarter ended December 27, 2008. The Company posted record revenue of $10.17 billion and record net quarterly profit of $1.61 billion, or $1.78 per diluted share. These results compare to revenue of $9.6 billion and net quarterly profit of $1.58 billion, or $1.76 per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter. Gross margin was 34.7 percent, equal to the year-ago quarter.

So, last quarter Apple brought in more revenue than Microsoft and brought in more profit. Okay.

But Microsoft founder Bill Gates has told the BBC that it could take as much as four years for economies in trouble to return to positive growth.

What would he know??????

Tags: Annoyances by mj
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I twittered

@antonmannering isn’t there a breakfast thing happening next week? (yes, this is a lead in…)

Anton Twittered

@cimota That’s right there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next Thursday 8am. Exact location TBC (Probably Ten Square or similar)

I twittered

@antonmannering did you say there’s a Digital Media Breakfast in Belfast next Thursday 8am. Exact location TBC (Probably Ten Square) Cool

Did you get it?

Tags: DigitalCircle by mj
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From Wikipedia

A facilitator is someone who helps a group of people understand their common objectives and assists them to plan to achieve them without taking a particular position in the discussion. The facilitator will try to assist the group in achieving a consensus on any disagreements that preexist or emerge in the meeting so that it has a strong basis for future action.

“The facilitator’s job is to support everyone to do their best thinking. To do this, the facilitator encourages full participation, promotes mutual understanding and cultivates shared responsibility. By supporting everyone to do their best thinking, a facilitator enables group members to search for inclusive solutions and build sustainable agreements” – Kaner

Sometimes, if you’re working in an area that you are personally passionate about, it can be very easy to be caught up in the flow and be contributing. For the most part – especially when dealing with a small facilitated group and a larger group of onlookers, I find myself constantly defending the decisions of other, justifying the fact that change takes time and that if the process itself is not the full time work of those involved then the process may take an order of magnitude longer.

In many areas it’s not my place to make the decisions. I can work on two levels – helping the core group to get to their destination and also making life easier for the wider audience. An example of this is currently in operation – the core group has a set of tasks to do and little spare time to do it however, in the absence of directed action, it’s possible to work on things and organise events which benefit the wider community that do not take a high level of participation from the core group.

Tags: Commentary, DigitalCircle by mj
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Today I posted a quick note about a workshop being held in the OhYeah building (with special thanks to OhYeah and NoMoreArt for helping pull it together). The event itself was conceived during an OpenCoffeeMorning conversation between myself and Marty Neill of NoMoreArt – as he puts it, democracy without bureaucracy.

The workshop is designed to help those in the “creative industries” find the time to fill in the forms for the Creative Industries Innovation Fund. I’ve spoken to a lot of people about this Fund and extolled it’s virtues and I hear a lot of the same story – it’s something they’ll get around to.

Well, time is up. The closing date for this first call is Thursday the 5th of February and if you miss this one it’s months until the next. And the best reason in the world to hold a workshop is to help people focus the mind. Ideally we’re aiming for a largish group of people all focussed on filling in their forms and getting the paperwork out of the way.

There will be two sessions: one from 11 am to 1 pm and the second from 4:30 pm to 6 pm. The content for both is the same and it straddles part of lunch and just after work so that people from all walks of life can make some time to come in and at least get the forms.

The workshop itself is not about guidance – it’s not about trying to ensure success - it’s about getting the forms in on time, because if they’re not in then you’ve got no chance. I have invited representatives from the Arts Council (who are managing the fund), NIMIC and NIScreen (who are especially relevant to the digital content industry) and the Digital Circle Steering Group – hopefully an individual might be able to talk to these representatives and maybe get some guidance or inspiration from people who have experience with this sort of thing.

It’s meant to be collaborative, it’s meant to be a learning experience and it’s meant to be a shared social experience. At the most basic level it’s a heap of forms and pens and desks and chairs. What’s more is that it’ll be a collection of people who all have something creative inside them which they feel is deserving of public funding in order to have it realised.

There’s a form for registry – just to help us get an idea of how many people will turn up so I’d appreciate it if people could register beforehand. The format will be informal and it will be about completing forms.

Tags: CoWorking, Commentary, Cool, DigitalCircle, Do Something Now, Social, Startup by mj
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Forgot to post this one – from the Ulster Bank Business Awards. We didn’t win but it was an interesting experience nonetheless – and the free lunch was a bonus.

Are these awards worth it? I’m unsure -the stress of preparing for them can distract you from your primary goal – making kick ass products and services.

But it’s not all work – some of it is fun – and it’s good to get distracted. The other two companies at our table were interesting – one provided outsourced skilled labour Europe-wide and the other had a self-erecting marquee product.

Tags: Commentary by mj
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