There will be two conferences in October that have almost identical name but are hardly the same by nature and content:

• Software Business 2007
• Business of Software 2007

Given that the first conference is for "owners, chief executives, presidents, vice presidents and division or department directors of leading and fast-growing software companies" and has this list of speakers. And the second is for "managers, CXOs, directors or founders of software companies" and has such speakers on the list. Which one would you attend?

I wish our president (president of Ukraine) and other folks in the government have read this wonderful piece by Paul Graham: Why Startups Condense in America. I wish they got the message and understood what is in there for Ukraine. I wish they run the country as business that must be effective and profitable to survive in the world marketplace.

One of the advantages that we should make use of is unique number and quality of hi-tech professionals we have in Ukraine. We must build on and develop this and other our strengths to be competitive in the world marketplace.

"Ukraine IT outsourcing tops in Eastern Europe" article by BPOUkraine elaborates a little bit on recent Goal Europe report by giving some additional information. It is interesting that according to the data from Ukrainian Hi-Tech Initiative Ukrainian outsourcing market was about $600 million in Y2006, which is more than two times greater then the number reported by Goal Europe - $246 million. I tend to think that the truth is somewhere in between.

Also there is a typo in the article: it says that SoftServe has more that 200 employees, but in fact SoftServe employs more than 700 professionals in 6 development centers in different regions of Ukraine.

Just worth reading article about a man who had courage to bet on changing the world and win.

Microsoft is about to open new development centre in Canada. What is interesting here it's business drivers. It is always interesting to see companies and people acting on their strategies as opposed to short-term tactics in pursuit of immediate ROI.

It is interesting how much talent Microsoft seeks to attract to new development centre. It is interesting if ROI analysis on this new Microsoft's investment will ever be done and we will be able to see it.

The study of offshore outsourcing industry by Goal Europe which I recently blogged about induced a whole bunch of news and blog posts quoting 47% outsourcing market growth in Ukraine. Currently Google gives 684 pages for "Ukraine GoalEurope" and blog search gives 36 references. Would be interesting to see who is interested in this news and who considers this information valuable enough to put it in their news line.

Goal Europe recently published a research study that indicates 47% outsourcing market growth in Ukraine in year 2006. As the market reached $246 million I believe that it will continue to increase this and coming years because Ukraine has several important advantages over China and India. Some of them outlined in the report are

• availability of highly-educated professionals;
• no or lesser time-zone difference with Europe and USA;
• less noticeable cultural difference

All of that combined with general orientation to Western world make Ukraine an attractive outsourcing destination.

Research indicates that there were 7639 professionals working in IT industry in 2006. This means that almost 10% of all Ukrainian developers are working at SoftServe because as we announced at the end of year 2006 that number of employees increased up to 700 people.

Every once in while in my day-to-day life I observe situations which make me think and draw analogies with my professional activities. Also I found that when I try to explain some concept to somebody I often use different analogies to make my speech more understandable and memorable. So I decided to start a series of posts called Projections of life where I will document my observations and thoughts. I hope they will be interesting and useful to you. So check out my Projections of life.

Business is about making a difference. Difference to customers, difference to partners, difference to employees. Now how you are different and why it is good or bad and act appropriately. Check out this material about difference (via Joel).

Microsoft disproves rumors about its moves to acquire Yahoo!. Microsoft executive says they’ve got everything they need to be successful advertising business. While I’m ok with Microsoft side, there is something that concerns me on Yahoo! side. Unfortunately, I’m not that much familiar Yahoo! and their services, but I do not think Yahoo!’s only value is its position in online advertising.