I was off-line over Easter and came back to a big surprise. Hugh MacLeod of www.gapingvoid.com had teamed up with “a small software concern in Redmond Washington” called Microsoft (disclosure; an Edelman client). I have had kippers with Hugh (really) and interviewed him a couple of times and so know him a little and I have worked as a consultant to Microsoft for many years, so it was a bit like hearing two friends had got married and you had no idea they were even seeing each other. But it is a match made in heaven. Just reading the posts and especially the comments you witness two very different brands and voices coming together (with the crowd) in a way that changes both of them. The great thing I have always loved about Hugh’s cartoons is that they are so relevent to real life and it is typical of him to be interested now in the BIG one that the overwhelming majority of us use every day rather than some Valley start-up which is intellectually fascinating and fashionable for a while, but may be just another VC’s wet dream. It will be fascinating to see how it develops. And congratulations to Steve Clayton at Microsoft for having the vision and the courage to see this through. I only wish I’d thought about it and then I could bill you for the idea.
[tags] Microsoft, Hugh MacLeod [/tags]
sixtysecondview.blog 
David – thanks for the kind words. It’s turning out to be quite an adventure 🙂
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I saw Hugh in London last week and he was really excited about this, he told me he was doing a “big job for Bill”, that’s how he put it.
Incidentally, a friend in my village has been commissioned to make a birthday cake for Microsoft to celebrate their 10th anniversary in Cambridge. I shall take a picture of it, I may even go along with her to their offices and deliver it.
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He was buzzing about it the other night too. He really thinks deeply about these things when he takes them on.
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We should feel passionate about our work, I’m sure it will be a success.
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