Some minor issues

Good Video. It’s a campaign for Kickers.
Read about in on contagious.

I love social networking sites, but to be honest I don’t use them that often. The only one I use frequently is LinkedIn (see my profile and connect), which is more business orientated.
I got an account on orkut as well, never used it intense.

So why facebook, why now? I knew it exists before I was able to get an account (only open for US students). So why now: because I wasn’t able back in the days, and I forgot about it. So why facebook. Basically, because I read the interview with Mark Zuckerberg in FastCompany’s previous issue. You can find a copy online, seems complete (good strategy FC!). It was an inspiring story. It’s about a guy who believes in what he does, and who identifies himself with his product (like FI). It’s about chance, vision, brains and guts. Don’t forget the guts! It’s about believing. I decided to give it a go because Mark decided not to sell his company for 1 billion dollar! I want to support this decision, show him it’s the right one by building on his numbers.

So if you’re on facebook, you can at least become my friend (search for the company “These Days“). I’m pretty pathetic with my zero friends for the moment

Attended the Multi-Mania conference in Kortrijk yesterday. Great event and great speakers.

My personal highlight of the day was definitely the short chat I had with David Martin, Fantasy Interactive‘s CEO.
For me this company is like an all time favorite. I remember, back in the days, we used to look at the RoadRunner flash portal as an example and a new standard. So many years later (5, 6 ..) the website is still standing.
To give you one particular example.

I talked with David about the design/development distinction. Everybody in the industry knows there is a gap between creation (concepts/designs) and development. It’s a natural gap, which is also enlarged by scope issues and change requests. But for years now FI seem to control this gap. All things they deliver are as perfect as they could. David named a few reasons:

- They don’t work with deadlines. They’re in the position to pick their clients, and work with the most possible care.
- Their motto is “quality over quantity”. It has to be perfect. That’s why they are in this position in the first place, because they aim higher than everybody else. A litter lower the competition is killing, but they rule their universe. A real blue ocean strategy indeed.
- You have to make sure all people involved feel they own the project/product, so they put maximum effort to make it the best they could.

I invented a FI baseline (slightly based on Google’s “don’t be evil”):

DON’T COMPROMISE

So I’m sure these guys keep rocking, and I definitely want to keep in touch. I think we can all learn from them and make our own methods and processes better. I know the business isn’t completely comparable. For instance These Days is much more of a marketing firm. We do campaigns, we obviously can’t live without deadlines. And for me personally, this is one of the fun parts. Rushing, making it work, getting things done.

They’ll launch their blog on Monday, so keep an eye on them.

David, nice talking to you.