Wow, we really achieved something this week. myStockBet.com is live, no major hickups occured and it seems like we have started a smooth starting operation.

As this is sucking up most of my available spare time, I hope that you have an understanding for me, that updates here have been made a bit less often than expected. Besides that, I will take a bit of effort today into renovating this site as well as there are some items that I really need to change.

It has really been a new experience to actually bring a site live, which is not expected to have any flaws. Sure something like a personal blog is allowed to have the one or other malfunction here and there but that would not be ok for launching something that deals with financial markets and hence trust.

So, a lot of effort was spent on testing and adjusting the functionality although I must say that especially this part was difficult at first. Imagine running a site with guys who want to get something going on the web, but do not really know how to utilize the web. I mean, especially HR was doing a great job, but even he takes his first step into an unknown land as he is yet to dicsover what the business models of the web are and what especially the community (and hence web 2.0) story is about.

This is fascinating to see and is once more a proof to me, how doomed huge corporations are, once their inherent inefficiency causes them to virtually implode, as they have established a model of 20/80. What I mean by that is, that you only need to know as much as 20% about a given topic to be better than 80% of your peers in a big corporation. If you know 25%, that will make you an expert. But the rude awakening comes, once you are to check yourself against the market.

Especially in the technology and internet business sector you will find, that the current models shift towards tightly networked specialists that are engaged as freelancers or small companies but achieveing huge streams of revenue and income.

Now, what I predict is, that given that another wave of cost reduction will lead to the release of large numbers of highly paid but at best mediocre skilled IT-staff which will helplessly swim around in the market as longterm unemployed. When I take a look at whom we, at my corporation, call a well-performing individual, I get the shivers. People are easily earning 5-6k € a month for claiming to be a project managers when they are just paper clippers.

But, what I really was to say is, that the Internet is more than any other medium rewarding if you have the guts and the energy to deal with it. It enables the smallest idea to evolve and become into something bigger, if you are just willing to learn a little bit and work hard to learn a bit more.

Learn and prosper ;)