announcement 2 of several: an explanation of tsp-4!

[chris raettig <chris@raettig.org>]

as people around me know all too well, i can be quite an extreme person.
i'm more than a little bi-polar, and am quite happy that way. life is
a rollercoaster. this manifests itself in my professional life as well
as my personal one. if there are tasks i dont much want to do, i become
enormously lethargic. it sometimes becomes impossible for me to get
anything done in those situations. however when i'm motivated, i can
move mountains. i can create like never before, i can break through barriers.
sure theres drudgery in every job. nothing is entirely free from that,
nor should it be. if the motivation is there, though, you can fly through
all that stuff. 

this is why i need my professional world to be as far inline as possible with 
not only my interests and passions, but also my life philosophies and the
things which i hold to be true. in order to avoid stagnation i need to
be enormously pro-active about engineering such environments for myself. 

one of my general aims in life is to always be working in warm company. so
it gives me great pleasure to be able to announce that i am in the process
of setting up a new business with a very good friend and colleague. 
(possibly the third startup company formed by ex-bluewavers?)  

we are to be known as: warm company

our website, once one has been constructed, will be available at;
www.thewarmcompany.com

we are unlikely to start trading for a good couple of months, as we are being
very diligent about the groundwork which needs to be done. and there is much
i cant yet talk about, as we firm up the plans. 

is it possible to build a company on love? am i prepared to go out of business
for my beliefs? the success or failure of this venture is in some ways
irrelevant. i think its important - vital - to take bold steps towards 
realising your dreams. if not you, who? if not now, when? i think its equally
important to stand up for your beliefs. with these things in mind, we are
marching resolutely forward. 

i cant talk about the specifics for the moment - though we've spent a considerable
amount of time working those out - but i can discuss the vagaries...


warm company will be built on our values of warmth, honesty, creativity,
compassion, ethics, rugged sexuality and working in a way that pursues
best creative process. the aim of its two directors (myself and one other)
will be to sustain ourself through working on projects which employ
the creative application of technology. my partner in this project is 
a very talented, creative and compassionate person whose skills in the
areas of design, aesthetic and multimedia might at first seem entirely
at odds with my own technical geekery. but these things compliment
each other well, and a great many interesting things can come from such
a fusion of art and science, creativity and logic, form and function. 
take a damned good techie and a damned good designer who work very
well and creatively together, and as i've seen demonstrated an awful
lot lately, its amazing what can result. the traditional agency
trait of separating and compartmentalising groups of people who happen
to apply their creativity in different ways is inherently flawed.

creative technology is definitely the name of the game. in addition to
a sincere desire to be a positive force. we want to do things that haven't
been done before, and learn from every project. 

warm company is certainly not a web shop. whilst we will look to engage
in web projects, our output might be almost anything. from design and
programming to live events, installation art, standalone products, 
music, consultancy, training and a lot more besides. 

its going to be an interesting year ;-)

we've thought this through much more thoroughly than this brief posting
makes clear. originally we planned to launch warm company late this year,
but during the ongoing dialogue we have decided to move things forward.

it is likely that until the end of march i will retain my technical
consultancy and webcam events role at showstudio. which will provide me
with the opportunity to engage in some amazing and exciting new projects
which i hope to document on this site as the next couple of months unfold. 
as we strive to get warm company operational by the beginning of next
quarter i may maintain an involvement in the running of showstudio's
technical services and live events, albeit in a slightly revised capacity.

 
there is a whole lot more i could say at this point, but whilst i'm happy
to answer questions in person or by email it would probably be prudent
to save further disclosure for future announcements. so watch this space.
no doubt i'll be calling upon everyone i know to help support this project
as we try and get things off the ground, so various people reading this
site may expect incoming email as events unfold.


meanwhile, in order to put the required systems in place i'm having to
make good on one of my other goals for this year; financial responsibility.

an opportunity to make a start on this has fortuitously presented itself
already. (see next announcement...)