Traditional show reel is a compilation of best effects or parts of accomplished projects demonstrating the genius and hard years of work. We took a little different approach this time. The idea was not just to shine without being present but create a cartoon short movie which can be watched by the audiences of all ages. If you have 2 spare minutes this is worth it.

For those of you wondering about the cost to create something similar: 136 seconds * $100/150 =$13.6/20.4k (typical rate for 2D animation on outsourced animation projects)

Reading traditional books (especially business books) is becoming more of a fun rather the part of self-improving or gaining the specific knowledge. It’s nice to touch the book and not just see at the screen of the laptop, share it with someone who can find the content useful. This weekend I’m reading Joel Spolsky’s Concise Guide to Finding the Best Technical Talent which our action script guru Dmitry shared with me as a must reading. While on it I have a few people in mind which I will definitely pass it further on. A lot of ’sales’ pitch in the book led me to the idea that business books are different from all other books, say cooking books. An author of a business book needs to convince the reader about the importance of the ideas contained in a book. He is giving the case studies proving the theory, showing the success stories and engaging the reader inside the business stories. At some point the business book becomes the adventure to the reader and kind of time waster – looks like the sales pitch keep 80% of the books content with 20% going to actual prescriptions.

With this said the reader should be actually prepared to reading. Take the sticky notes or paper and make notes all the time you drop on the information allowing to improve what you do at work! Remember: if you haven’t implemented at least three improvements after finishing reading the book during 1-3 weeks you waisted the time! It was just an adventure to you, when you were following the author but you missed the most important 20% of the book since you haven’t implemented it in the real life.

If your activity is not very much dependant on time and location and you are not the sole service provider in the area, you certainly need advertising. If not advertising in its pure sense, then at least some efforts to make your business known beyond the circle of your actual clients, their friends and relatives.

There was a time when ads in the local newspaper would spread the word about you to everyone. Then came a time when you needed to bother about radio-coverage, publish a couple of leaflets, and, who knows, may be your city was big enough to have a TV channel.

Today, however, the issue of spreading information is not that simple. The thing is that the pool of information is bottomless. If you want to get your message through to me, for instance, it’s no use trying to do it with conventional advertising techniques. It was 1.5 years ago that I last saw a newspaper; I only occasionally come across a radio broadcast once in a couple of weeks; as for the television, I don’t watch it at all. And it’s not that I’m a snob who doesn’t care about the world around. The thing is that I don’t have time to follow all the information sources. And even if I did watch TV, how could one guess which of the dozens of channels I would pick that day. When there used to be only 3 TV channels, the term “information space” made some sense. But since their number saw an incredible increase, there have appeared numerous, practically isolated information spaces.

It’s true that some people can afford advertising through television, and radio, and newspapers and the Internet, but I’m going to focus on the latter. Just a year ago all you had to do is launch a site describing your services, spend a couple of dollars on Search Engine Optimization and contextual advertising (AdWords and such), and there would be no way for me to go past your message. But if you consider the amount of information digested by today’s users, it becomes quite clear that it is not enough anymore. Seriously, I use search engines by far less than I used to. And I haven’t been to the news sites for quite a time. The reason behind this is that I long ago realized what kind of information I need. So I get my daily portion of information from thoroughly selected RSS channels and social networks like Facebook and sometimes even MySpace. If I ran a business or targeted customers in another country I would have to master quite a different approach to social media, and have a presence in, say, Orkut for Brazil and India, LiveJournal for Russia, Hi5 for Columbia and Ecuador and so on.

What I’m driving at is that simply being on the web is not enough anymore; you’ve got to show up on the pages of MySpace and Facebook. For many these words have become synonyms to the Internet. A MySpace user may not be aware of what’s going on beyond it, to say nothing of the things that are not in the cyberspace.

Can you be everywhere? I’m not sure, just because I understand that MySpace and Facebook were designed for completely different types of people. The techniques you use to bring your message to people in one system won’t work for the other. Even if you spend a lot of time to get the essence of it. And there’s never enough time for everything, even if spreading information is all you do.

So you either have to put up with the fact that your ads only manage to get the message to the ever shrinking audience of conventional mass media, or you’ve got to hire specialists in the new types of media. Not just the media that have already won their million audiences, but also the emerging ones. The thing is that the interests and preferences of those important for you decision makers can unpredictably and radically change in just months. They can turn to those new types of media that only a handful of specialists and enthusiasts are aware of today.

Just mentioning among other things that you have been at MySpace since 2003 can be very rewarding. Or how about getting to know in 2011 that quite a half of your clients learned about you from a site that will only launch its public beta testing tomorrow?

As for us, we already have our private beta invitation to the Next Big Thing of the internet, no matter which site happens to be the one.

1st of January – New Year

7th of January – Orthodox Christmas

1st of May – International Labor Day

6th of May – Commemoration Day

9th of May – Victory Day

3rd of July – Independence Day

7th of November – October Revolution Day

25th of December – Catholic Christmas

Hint: when the holiday falls on Saturday or Sunday in Belarus – it’s celebrated the same day and doesn’t get shifted to next Monday or previous Friday. This generally makes the short list of holidays even shorter.

- Full-circle Sales department setup;

- The list of technologies and project types was extended (facebook applications, social networking, media streaming, mobile games);

- A number of customers visited us in our offices in Belarus – which was productive and fun;

- Top professionals joined the company and the most talented been promoted;

- Huge number of projects was successfully accomplished;

- We celebrated our 6th year anniversary.

In 2008 we will continue to work day and night to exceed your expectations in MoveYourWeb as the outsourcing company of your choice. Our biggest goal for 2008 is to help you achieve your goals!

Thank you once again for your business! The entire MoveYourWeb team wishes you and your families and friends a happy, healthy, and prosperous 2008!

MoveYourWeb Offshoring Web Development Company is located in Belarus (Eastern Europe) with its headquarters in Minsk, the capital, and the branch office in Homel. Located conveniently in Eastern Europe, Belarus is easy to reach from any spot of the world. Minsk has a newly renovated National Airport Minsk just 50 km (30 miles) from the city center, ultra-modern Central Train Terminal with regular trains between Minsk and practically every major capital in Europe; and a developed net of highways.

Belarus is blessed with gorgeous landscape defined by splendid foliage – and coniferous forests, numerous crystal-clear lakes, spectacular rivers and immense green fields. Our climate is quite comfortable for all foreigners who come here. With warm and moist summers and mild, yet sometimes snowy, winters, Belarus sees about 175 sunny days a year. Belarus is known for its diverse culture, including visual arts, ceramics and music, unsurpassed Belarusian cuisine, and kind attitude to the foreigners.

MoveYourWeb will help our partners who wish to visit Belarus arrange a business trip. We’ll handle the official invitation for our partners to obtain a business visa to Belarus. The easiest and most popular way to get Belarussian visa is upon arrival (the belarussian officials will stamp it right in the Airport). The fee for visa upon arrival is $180 for US citizens. As soon as you arrive, we’ll pick you up at the airport and assist you in terms of accommodation and other things you might need. We’ll take special care of your visit so that you feel maximum of comfort on your business trip.

You will definitely like Minsk, which, yet big and busy, is kept surprisingly clean and pleasant to live and to stay, while numerous parks and green areas create an oasis of peace among the city’s hustle and bustle. Minsk offers a variety of accommodation options for your convenient stay, but, to be honest, our hotels are not our strong side – they provide an average level of comfort at a price of $60-160 per night for a single room, and $100-200 per night for a double. New grand 5-star hotels are being under construction at the moment, and very soon Minsk will offer its guests world-class accommodations in hotels. By now, if you are seeking luxury and maximum of comfort, we can arrange a super luxury apartment with all the modern amenities you can imagine – located in the city center, penthouse at a price of $250 per night.

When it comes to eat, Minsk offers a number of choices to enjoy your meal varying from grand and expensive restaurants to small cafes and take-aways. You will be able to indulge in delicious Belarusian, Italian, French, American, Japanese, and Mediterranean cuisine at modern and immaculately decorated restaurants with excellent service: James, Saloon, Westfalia, Casa Agustin Lopez, 7 Tonn, and hundreds of others welcome you to try fantastic culinary masterpieces created by their talented cooks.

Now, as you arrived, unpacked your things, refreshed a bit, and had a lunch or dinner – it is high time for a business meeting. The typical itinerary for the day is as follows:

1-00 pm assistant of the CEO picks the customers and drives to the office

1-30 pm – introductions

2-00 pm – project meetings

3-00 pm – break

3-15 pm – project meetings

4-30 pm – lunch

5-30 pm – project meetings

6-00 pm – assistant drives the customer to the hotel/restaurant/any

place of interest

11-30 pm – chill out in a night club.

We also recommend not to plan any project meetings for the first and the last day of your stay so you can recover after the flight and have time to pack/unpack the suits.

Having a spare weekend is a nice opportunity to see the stunning places of interest such as Opera and Ballet Theatre, Victory Obelisk, Cathedral (catholic) of Simeon and Alyona, Minsk Botanical Garden, Trinity Suburb (where our office is located by the wayJ) in Minsk itself; or visit some nice Belarusian historic places in the Minsk District, including Mir Castle, Palace-and park ensemble in Nesvizh, Historic Museum in Dududki, Khatyn Memorial, Stalin Line; unique parks and preserves, like Belovezhskaya Pushcha, and Berezinski Preserve.

It seems like your business trip is going to be very saturated, and it is not only business but also discovery! Our company will give you assistance in all your matters while you are in Belarus. But before, please, read some of our practical tips

Practical Tips:

• Language

People in Belarus speak Russian. Even though most of people study English at school, language problems may arise sometimes (but not with MoveYourWeb employees), so don’t be surprised in case you can not communicate with regular people on the streets.

• Cash & ATMs

There are many ATM machines in all major cities. However, having some money in cash is necessary, because credit cards are not widely accepted. Money is Belarusian ruble and its current rate is here. You may get Belarusian money from currency exchanges, which can be found in abundance in all Belarusian towns. Euros and dollars are okay in many places. You will be able to get Belarusian rubles in any ATM located at in the nearest shop, there are some specific ATM’s allowing dollar/euro withdrawals.

• Hygiene & Health

Tap drinking water is typically safe – you don’t have to boil it or anything. Epidemiological situation is reasonable – close as in US or Western Europe. No malaria here

• Communications

There are Internet cafes in Minsk and other cities, which provide cheap, but usually slow Internet access. Also many postal offices offer have Internet services. Public phones use cards only, which can be bought from newsagents. You may always go to the Postal office in Minsk, which provides internet access 24-hours every day.

• Tips

Generally you should give tips only in the restraints – which is not obligatory as well. If you pay by credit card you will not be able to specify a tip amount. So just leave some cash (5% of the order) while leaving.

Belarus is located in Europe and there is no big cultural difference from other developed countries so generally all other popular rules apply here. All customers who visited our company or Belarus in general are welcome to comment and share their experience in regards their stay.

The first thing I did as a marketer after playing with the web site – I checked it’s Alexa rankings (it’s now ranked as a 13k web site in terms of visitors) and yes – the traffic was exactly the same I had pictured in mind: the popularity of the web site skyrocketed in the first week when it was introduced (looks like it was in top 1k of the web sites) and then started decreasing gradually… I think the late posts like that and the users that haven’t seen it yet are keeping the web site on 13k position.

The important lesson that can be learned: the web site is amazing and fan, however it brings no real value or importance (why should someone wait for this girl smiling and thinking while when he needs). That’s the reason for super popularity which lasted a week (the number of visitors was really huge, however few of those returned).

One of the important aspects of effective communication is stable and reliable internet connection (currently we have 8mb down and 1mb up stream). The sad fact is that even the biggest internet provider in the country has some downtime happening. So the last week we signed agreement with another alternative providing another back-end up and down links to our office. The administrators already performed the necessary updates of the routing server to handle the change of one ISP to another during the downtime. Stay tuned!

The necessity of creating this new position was conditioned by the fact that many companies that work on an international level are very often puzzled when it comes to the real issues of targeted or online marketing with a local flavor. In fact, “website globalization puts this issue front and center as firms market their brand and wares through their corporate URLs”. Companies often lack a high profile specialist to control the messaging, budget, technology infrastructure, and other key elements for the channel of global communication and commerce.

It happens that this is exactly a CGO who should take upon all these duties. The CGO is often compared to that second steady hand: the catalyst for global thinking, and responsiveness.

The CGO’s main functions include:

1) to form a corporate global mindset to help the organization enter new markets, and maintain competitiveness in those markets for many years to come;

2) to pursue the best global leadership talent to be able to respond to local conditions;

3) to continuously improve organizational structures to meet local conditions;

4) to conduct the management of knowledge and information, and utilize it through the best use of technology.

The first company to appoint a Chief Globalization Officer outside the US is American Cisco Systems, Inc. With that, one more C level position has been created in corporate America. Wim Elfink, the first professional Cisco’s Chief Globalization Officer will go to Bangalore and work from there, thus creating the first CGO job in Corporate America outside its borders; i.e offshore.

According to Mr Elfink, as a Chief Globalization Officer, he will be in charge of “executing the growth strategy for the company globally, including collaborating with Cisco’s worldwide functional leaders to innovatively globalize and scale all functions by leveraging their work in India as a platform”.

Besides, he will take up elaborating disruptive business models for Cisco to create new markets, go-to-market channels, and technologies. Additionally, he is planning to carry out an analysis of possible implementation of Cisco’s $1.1billion investment in India. He emphasizes that developing and strengthening existing partnerships with Indian IT partners on a global scale is of vital importance to Cisco. The reason is not only that India’s market is growing for Cisco products and services. In fact, India was chosen due to many other factors. First, India is an open culture, unlike, say, China. It is well known for its strong sense of partnership, which is beneficial for implementing Cisco’s globalization strategy. Secondly, it has educated workforce, innovative customers, and skilled partners that have global capabilities. Finally, India’s government pays much attention to economic development across all levels of society.

Overall, time will show if the position of a Chief Globalization Officer justifies itself. However, already now it is clear that with the development of the modern global economy, and growing availability of the offshoring services, this new C position can become irreplaceable for implementing modern globalization strategy.

The world of marketing is definitely getting smarter with the marketing masseges hitting very small targets. The successful marketers of the future and successful business ventures are those who will be able prepare X versions of the same basic ad delivered to X different users based on both data that is mined behind the scenes, and data that they directly input.

Web 2.0 is in power now and the most valuable companies are those focused of competitive differentiation based on data. Those services succeded because they effectivelly gather and use the data – there is no much sense listing all of YouTubes, MySpace, Facebook and others here. They are known not for the security, reliability or security. In fact many have experience outage that would have killed any other traditional web company. Data is the most important component of internet success nowadays. Think about the way you utilize and use the data while starting your next business venture or rethinking the functionality of the current solution.

 p.s. I’m a big fan of our English classes not just because we polish our English speaking skills here but because this is a great opportunity to discuss ideas, trends and innovations happening in the IT industry.