BUY LEVITRA NO PRESCRIPTION

I recently had the pleasure of being in Italy for a week with my family, visiting Bologna, Ferrara, Verona, Padua and Venice. We had a great time. [7 Days]

Last night, the family decided to watch a film that included Venice in its storyline - Only You. Made in 1994, and starring Marisa Tomei and Robert Downey Jr., this is a beautiful film about destiny and finding your soul-mate. [140 Mins]

But I was struck, as I watched Tomei’s character Faith sending a telegram home from Italy, about how much has changed in the way we travel in the 17 years since this film was made, and the (literally) far-reaching effects of internet technology.

Goodbye to the Telegram

OK, there are probably people reading this who have never seen or sent a telegram, other than perhaps when sent to a wedding. But even in 1994, fax machines were only just starting to appear in home offices, and internet access was still a relative novelty. There were only around 10,000 web sites, and most access was through dialup modem. IDC statistics estimate only 16 million people, or 0.4% of the world’s population, were using the internet in 1995. Today, the figures are closer to 30% of the world’s population, with almost 80% penetration in North America.

The good old guidebook

We came across a 1997 vintage guide to Italy in a charity shop before we left on our trip. It originally retailed at £20. Of course, some things in that book were timelessly unchanged, such as the interior of San Marco’s Basilica in Venice, or the Roman Amphitheatre in the heart of Verona. However, the choice of restaurants was very limited, and none of the hotels listed had a web site or email address. To book a hotel, you would phone one of those listed, hope your Italian was up to scratch, or their English good, and perhaps give them your credit card details, with any confirmation, if it came, being by fax. [20 Mins] If the hotel had a fax, of course. And think of booking your flight - you’d head off to a flight shop or travel agent, explain where you want to go and when, and they’d post you out tickets a week or so later. [90 mins] You might have been given a choice of one or two airlines for your route.

How do you hire a FIAT to Rome?

In the film, Faith and her girlfriend have to hire a car as there is a National strike taking place in Italy, and she needs to get to Rome from Venice. She’d have asked her hotel where the nearest car rental office is, and gone there to arrange the hire. [50 Mins] Of course, given the idiosyncrasy of Italian road signing, she gets lost, and runs out of petrol on the way. [120 mins]. Luckily, some passing Nuns (it’s a film) help her out with a fuel top-up, and she finds her way to Rome. On arrival, she drops off her car at the rental agency, and grabs a taxi to take her to the Roman hotel address she’s been given. As it turns out, the taxi ride is very short, as her destination turns out to be just the other side of the same piazza. [20 Secs]

So, Faith is still looking for her elusive soul-mate, but needs somewhere to stay. A local businessman recommends a little Pensione a few streets away, and accompanies them there, where, of course, being the movies, a room is free and the place is wonderful. [5 Mins] Her trips around Rome are initially by Taxi, and then she needs to buy a guidebook in order to locate all the hotels nearby where her elusive soul-mate might be staying… you'll need to see the movie to find out what happens next.

Fast forward to October 2011

Being a canny Scot, I start with Skyscanner to find the cheapest flight to ‘Everywhere’ around the school half-term dates. Italy is near the top of the list, with direct flights to Bologna. After discussion with the family, I pay extra for 1 piece of hold luggage, and book online. [15 Mins]. I check in online with all passport details transmitted, for both outward and return flights, and print my boarding passes. [5 Mins] I decide to stay two nights in Bologna, before we join friends in Verona, so head to Tripadvisor.com and book the second-most-recommended hotel in Bologna. The best rate I find is through hotels.com who also have an iPhone app, for which I recall from their newsletter gives a 15% discount if you use a promo code in their mobile app. I use the same app to book Verona - this time in the same hotel as friends we're meeting. [10 Mins] For both, I can print or store the PDFs for confirmation, which have maps to guide me there. I’ll need to hire a car after staying in Bologna, so I search via an online broker for the cheapest deal, and it turns out to be from Avis. Google Maps show me it’s easy to get to their downtown rental office from my hotel, so I book it, and choose a one-way hire, to drop the car at the airport on the way back. [10 Mins] After a serious amount of time investigating hotels available in Venice (notoriously small and expensive), we make our choice after reading reviews at Tripadvisor.com on their iPhone app, and book again through hotels.com. [10 Mins] I add my bookings and flights to Tripit by forwarding a few emails, so that I have my details in my iPhone as a backup to paper copies. [2 mins]

Driven to distraction

Of course, if you have ever driven in Italy, you’ll know that road signs can be a problem, with the signing concept of ‘primary destination’ being slightly alien. Seeing ten-plus destinations at one junction is also not all that rare, but direction confirmation signs are, meaning it’s easy to get on the wrong road without knowing it until it’s far too late. Such was my fate in Verona. [40 mins] I couldn’t find the SR11 out of town from the centre. So I admitted defeat, switched on data roaming on my iPhone, and asked my Maps app to take me from my current location to the hotel address. My wife read out the turn-by-turn moves as I drove. [11 Mins]

We hadn’t booked anything for a night in Padua, but on arrival, while my wife and child checked out a hotel that looked good, I checked their prices and reviews on my iPhone as I waited in the car. [5 Mins] My wife negotiated a better deal because I texted her the online cost, and she got also got parking thrown in.

I knew where to park in Venice thanks to a little prior research courtesy of Google, and I knew also to get the Number 2 waterbus into town for the cheap and very scenic route. The subsequent walk to our hotel was as per the Google Maps instruction - but we did have to ask a Gondolier for help at the last turn - we laughed when we saw that the hotel sign was right above our heads. The hotel was amazing, as per the reviews - and they were able to upgrade us free to a canal view as I’d requested in a comment when I booked.

We avoided some of the worst tourist traps, and discovered some off-the-track gems with a little free Guidepal app of Venice, which even had an Augmented Reality ‘point and find out what’s interesting nearby’. No data roaming needed, as the hotel had free wifi - as did every one we stayed in.

But the serendipity of travel is not all gone. Our last night was spent at a little hotel in Ferrara which was recommended to us by the girl who served us our lunch - it was just around the corner, and it provided the best breakfast of our holiday. [40 mins] Turns out it's ranked #2 out of 43 in the city at Tripadvisor...

This blog originally appeared at EnergySys

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[caption id="attachment_1110" align="alignright" width="300" caption="We can predict the future. "][/caption] Image: br3akthru / FreeDigitalPhotos.net This blog contains "forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 regarding business strategies, market potential, future financial and operational performance and other matters. Such forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding the anticipated benefits of the transaction and other statements identified by words such as "may," "will," "intend," "should," "expect," "might," "dunno," "maybe," "guess," "like, who knows, man?" or similar expressions. These statements are based on management's current expectations and beliefs, warped, hopelessly blinkered and woolly as they may be, and are subject to uncertainty and changes in circumstances, including, but not limited to, the satisfaction of the closing conditions to any transaction and the parties' performance of their obligations under the agreements; changes in our plans, strategies and intentions; the competitiveness and quality of our products and services; our ability to retain, hire and develop key employees; shit happening; the intensity of competition; just dropping the ball, or blabbing during a big drunk in Vegas and those big guys in the morning saying they had photos and video but god that girl had such a sweet ass. Any forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and actual results may vary materially from those expressed or implied by the statements herein, due to changes in economic, business, competitive, technological, strategic and/or regulatory factors, as well as factors affecting our operations and businesses. Like being total pricks who've been insulated in some dumb private school and business-school make-believe cosy bubble since we were about 10, and who don't know our ass from our elbow in the real world of business and commerce, and have the MBAs to prove it. More detailed information about these factors as they relate to us may be found in the section entitled "Shit and the Fan" in our Annual Report on Form 10-K, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. They never read that stuff anyway. We are under no obligation to, and expressly disclaim any obligation to, update or alter the forward-looking statements contained in this blog, whether as a result of new information, future events, the bloody obvious, alien invasion, or otherwise. And hey, we don't have a f**king crystal ball, you know. However, we might just change it later to make it look like we were smarter earlier, because it's pretty easy to do that in WordPress. Inspired by an AOL press release.

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Enjoyed this? You'll enjoy Age of Conversation 3, and so will charity: water who receive all proceeds from sales of this book.

UK based startup Huddle.net announced today that Hewlett-Packard (HP) will include the Huddle collaboration application on commercial PCs, laptops and netbooks globally. “Teaming up with the world’s largest technology company is yet another validation of Huddle as a principal player in the collaboration market,” said Alastair Mitchell, co-founder and CEO, Huddle.net. “With Huddle, HP customers gain access to the enterprise-level collaboration tools at the SMB prices that deliver competitive advantage and increase business efficiency.” Huddle is debuting within HP Connect Solutions, a new desktop collection of HP and partner software aiming to help small to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) in their day-to-day activities. Huddle is one of only two third-party applications available on Connect Solutions, alongside Symantec’s Norton Online Backup. HP customers will benefit from exclusive Huddle offers via Connect Solutions, as well as the recently relaunched HP Access web site. HP Access offers special promotions to Small to Medium Businesses, supporting them throughout their ‘life events’ from starting a business through generating revenue to increasing productivity. In addition, as part of a phased rollout, Huddle will be available through the HP Advisor Dock, a customizable, desktop bar that helps users to discover HP and partner software on first boot of their machine. Through the Advisor Dock, HP customers will access online offers and navigate through key applications and services. The collaboration with HP is the last on Huddle’s list of global deals. In 2009, Huddle signed up the world’s largest conferencing provider InterCall and launched its application across key social networks including LinkedIn, Ning and XING.

Rise of the Global Agency by G. Kofi Annan - www.annansi.com/blog

“As the global centers of influence change marketing and advertising will need to ramp up their collaboration with and training of international agencies and employees. The question at this point is not when to divert resources internationally, but how fast to do so.”

In a chapter entitled 'Rise of the Global Agency' Kofi Alaz suggests that there is a new breed of 'Agency 2.0' in the Age of Conversation - an international and independent type of body that works - guess what - in a different way. >> Read the full story from Ozgur Alaz and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today... David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book 'Age of Conversation 2'. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence. All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

Pricing in the Age of Conversation by Ozgur Alaz - www.marketallica.com

“Although influentials constitute a very small portion of Internet users, their effects are great. They have the power to influence thousands of people with the content they produce; they influence purchase decisions in many cases. I will discuss how the Age of Conversation may change our pricing practices by bringing forward a new provocative proposition.”

In a chapter entitled 'Pricing in the Age of Conversation' Ozgur suggests a radically new pricing mechanism for online content. Radically new. But the price of this knowledge is of course, as ever in this series, the price of holding the hardback, softback or ebook version of AOC2! >> Read the full story from Ozgur Alaz and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today... David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book 'Age of Conversation 2'. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence. All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

The Secret to Conversing with Non-Humans by Chris Kieff - www.1GoodReason.com

“There are Non-Human Entities among us. Many people have seen them, or claim to have seen them. They move amongst us quietly, unseen by most. However, they carry immense power. These things can make or break companies, individuals, and careers. They can give you million$ of dollar$, or take them away.”

In a chapter entitled 'The Secret to Conversing with Non-Humans' Chris reminds us of four important things you must bear in mind when you talk to the rather important non-humans you'll encounter online : —

1. Be honest
2. Bottom Line up Front
3. Avoid using synonyms
4. Stay on message

>> Read the full story from Chris Kieff and 236 other contributors: Buy Age of Conversation 2 today... David Petherick is one of 237 authors who contributed to the book 'Age of Conversation 2'. For the first 237 days of 2009, he is highlighting a chapter from one of his co-authors, briefly discussing their contribution, and linking you to their blog or online presence. All proceeds from sales of Age of Conversation 2 go to charity.

I was very excited to hear about the forthcoming @Twestival, taking place across the world and bringing together users of the Twitter microblogging service to raise money for charity:water on February 12th 2009. A great idea, a great cause, and no doubt some great social events where people will get to meet new friends... UPDATE: Click here to book tickets for Edinburgh Twestival - and be quick, they are going fast. There's a @twestival event being organised in my local city of Edinburgh, but I may not be able to attend that, so I wanted to help them raise money, irrespective of my geography, by offering something. And what better than something related to Twitter? I've been creating twitter backgrounds and enhancing online profiles for my customers for some time, and I normally charge a minimum of $120 for a Twitter Profile Makeover, with a custom background and avatar. I've decided to offer this service at half price - just $60, and I will donate half of that - $30 - to charity: water for each Twitter Makeover.

Twitter Profile Makeovers for just $60!

So if you want a custom Twitter Background Profile Makeover then just make payment using PayPal, and I'll contact you to discuss what you want. See recent examples of Twitter Profile Makeovers for @sherylbreuker, @kencamp and @clarocada. (Will open in new browser windows) Here's How it Works...

1. You click and pay securely via PayPal (no need for a PayPal account - any debit/credit card is fine)
2. I contact you and we have a chat via Skype, or Gtalk, or old fashioned Telephone
3. You send me any images you wish to use
4. I then create your new background image and Twitter Avatar (photo)
5. I send you the graphic to upload to Twitter, give you hex color codes to amend your twitter colo(u)rs to suit, along with a new avatar image
6. If necessary, I will 'walk you through' uploading to your twitter profile
7. I complete the whole process within 24 hours
8. If you wish, I will announce your new image and support for @twestival in a tweet

YES DAVID! Please create a Twitter Custom Profile Background, Color Scheme and Custom Avatar for me for just $120 $60! I am happy to support charity: water with 50% of your fee being donated to them. IMPORTANT: I am limiting this offer to a maximum of just four people a day, until Thursday, 12th February, as I have a number of other commitments. So get your money down, help provide safe drinking water for those who might otherwise die without it, and feel good about making yourself look better too!

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This article was originally written for The Next Web Blog and appeared on Saturday, 17th January 2009.

Today, we found out that Google, where search is the core of its business, have added a link to new experimental features to its home page, which show options that can be added to the 'standard' search. The most dramatic of these is probably 'Alternate views for search results' which, due to its nature, gives you different search results and rankings in different views of the same search query. So Search Experts take note: Page 1 of Google now has at least four different results!. Your site can be #1 in one type of search, but be invisible in others. The standard Google search results page now also has "News about search term" appended to your search results as you can see below.

Google's New 'Alternate View' Search Types

It is worth taking a look at this new feature for searches that include:-

• Search Results in Timelines [try this]
• Search Results on Maps [try this]
• Search Results in 'Info Views' which allow further refinement 'on the fly' [try this]
• One-click returns you to 'Standard' List View

You can obtain these views immediately using the standard google search interface by adding "view:map" "view:timeline" or "view info" following your search term - so rather than a search for 'the next web' you search for "the next web view:timeline".
I'd recommend you check out these new search views, and also ensure that your site's metadata is structured to ensure you appear in these new formats of search results.
There are also three other experimental search features at present -

• SearchWiki with sound - when you remove a result from your personal results, toy can have a sound effect play along with the animation whenever you remove a result. The sound is recorded by Google co-founder Sergey Brin.
• Keyboard shortcuts - use your keyboard to navigate results - so J Selects the next result, K Selects the previous result, etc.
• Accessible View - As you navigate, items are magnified for easier viewing. If you use a screen reader or talking browser, the relevant information is spoken automatically as you navigate.

Google continues to innovate and to develop its search technology, and in my view these new experimental features show that it's still the very best at delivering search results. It's also a wake-up call for you to ensure that the information on your web pages is given proper semantic structure - or meaning - because that will be a crucial differentiatiator as the amount of data online increases. (Screen shots created by David Petherick using plasq's Skitch)

As someone involved in what I reluctantly term 'online reputation management', I carry out a regular search for my own name, and those used by my customers, and I was interested recently to come across my name in relation to twitter, but with the accompanying description of 'Chef'. * Now, I use the phrase 'word chef' to describe what I do rewriting online profiles, and include the phrase in my Twitter Profile's brief description, so this was not a huge surprise, but I was surprised to find myself in a 'Directory of Twitter Chefs' when I first came across Twellow.com in July. I claimed my entry by just entering my twitter password, and then could add various social media profiles, add myself to directory categories that fit my activities, and was also able to find other people in twitter with activities and interests like mine (or, importantly, quite unlike mine). I was placed into the 'chef' category because the word appeared in my twitter description and matched the taxonomy of the search categories. I'd advise you to check that you're in the most appropriate categories - and have a browse for other twitter members in various categories. There is also a powerful search facility, which can either be directory-wide, or can focus on a specific 'vertical' - so you can find all of the Internet Marketing geeks with Tokyo in their profile, for example. It's one thing to be able to search for what people are tweeting about, but it's also very useful to know who the people on twitter are.

Simple and powerful idea

The site is a property of IEntry, known mainly for its advertising sites, but for now, there are few ads appearing on Twellow. I'm sure it doesn't take too much imagination to see how they might monetize a Twitter Directory, although at present, those with the most followers, default to top of the page, with a filter to swap to showing those with the most recent twitter updates. So - are you categorised correctly? Go to Twellow now and check your entry! I was amazed to see that in the Geeks Category, Robert Scoble hasn't yet claimed his profile!

* I will be looking at some tools for monitoring online conversations later this month - make sure you are subscribed to the Digital Biographer RSS feed, or follow me on Twitter.

The Google Knol I created on the 24th of July entitled 'How to Read the Russian Alphabet in 75 Minutes' was already appearing on Page 1 of a Google Search for "read russian" with 12,300,000 results following, just a day later. I have updated the title within Knol from the one showing in the Google index, but that's still a pretty impressive result for content that I created and put online only the day before. And Google say they'll pay me from any adsense revenue the page generates. This is part of the reason why I was interested in Google Knol from December last year when it was first announced. We'll see how it develops, but it looks like a fairly effective way to share your knowledge, get good search positions, and also perhaps make some money. Until someone pinches your content... (to be fair, Google allow content to have three copyright models - the two popular Creative Commons licence types, and one of 'All rights reserved'. You may be interested to joing a Ning-powered discussion group that I created when first hearing about Google Knol, and which is now beginning to gain members and become active: Knol Roll on Google Knol .
View my page on Knol Roll
PS: You may also want to see Search Success for details of getting yourself to Page 1 on Google.

I first wrote about Google Knol when the topic was first aired in December 2007 on Google's Blog, in my article "Knol is on a Roll: Google’s new economy for online authors?". A knol is a term Google had created for a 'unit of knowledge' and the announcement created a great deal of interest and speculation, as much for the lack of details as for the excitement at what it might evolve into. Many commentators called it 'Google's Wikipedia killer' but as I said then, that was simply a lazy and incorrect generalisation - but there was little very specific information. And today, many commentators are again likening Knol to Wikipedia - see related links below. Today, Google has announced its public beta of Google Knol, defining a knol as "Knols are authoritative articles about specific topics, written by people who know about those subjects." So from today, you can start to add your knol, or knowledge. This is a beta version, so of course there are rough edges, and Google will be looking to get feedback on many aspects and issues. (I for one found that I could not log at all in using Firefox on my Mac, but have had no problems with Camino or Safari.) Some positive features are what Google calls 'moderated collaboration.' "Any reader can make suggested edits to a knol which the author may then choose to accept, reject, or modify before these contributions become visible to the public." Nice.

Google, why I can't verify my identity?

However, one issue that seems a very basic oversight is that 'Name Verification' (so you can verify that you, as an author, are who you say you are) is only available for those based in the USA. The systems available for those Knol authors in the USA are via Phone or Credit Card checks. Pardon me for pointing out the obvious, but there are telephone directories and credit cards used all over the world, Google. The raised credibility that Google cites arising from verifying yourself is therefore, at present, reserved exclusively for you only if you live in the USA. So if you live anywhere outside the USA, do not send to know for whom Google knols, it does not knol for thee. (Apologies for that play on words to John Donne) This is not the sort of even-handed approach you'd expect from a global player like Google - and the fact that there is no mention of OpenID or even Google's own identity systems like Google Checkout or Adsense strikes me as a missed opportunity, even for a beta-stage development. The fact that one can share revenue with Google by electing whether or not to show Google Adsense Adverts on one's Knol content makes this a very strange omission, and I fear, one that may open Knol up to a lot of spam entries or gaming. I managed to log in and add a Knol to Google this morning entitled 'How to read Russian in 75 Minutes' (I've proved that this works in a 75-minute lecture in 2005, by the way) but at present, my Knol on Reading Russian only appears in a search when I am logged in with a Google login (the login I use for Gmail, Google Reader etc), but it the knol is reachable with a link, whether or not I am logged in. However, the range of 'Featured Knols' as samples that appeared on my screen today had me speechless - they covered Diabetes, Lung Cancer, Toilet Clogs and Tooth pain. Wow. Maybe that's Google's way of encouraging you to add better content - or at least, to add more cheerful and uplifting content!

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UPDATE: The Google Knol I created yesterday entitled 'How to Read the Russian Alphabet in 75 Minutes' is on Page 1 of a Google Search for "read russian" with 12,300,000 results following. I have updated the title from the one showing in the Google index, but that's still pretty impressive.

When individuals and companies working as web designers, web programmers, in public relations and search optimisation experts all begin to start dropping the same buzzwords and approach into their promotional material, you know there's a bandwagon rolling... The latest big bandwagon is Online Reputation Management which now appears in the famous 'Web 2.0 Buzzword Bingo'. It's popping up in hundreds of blogs highlighting how 'if you Google Company X, the first page is full of people dumping on them' and invariably points to the author, or their associates as the expert who can fix the problem, and make this bad coverage disappear. A search in Google for the term 'online reputation management' finds over 4.6 million entries, and the sponsored ads are full of phrases like 'Remove Bad Information', 'Fight Negative Publicity' and 'Defend Your Reputation'. The organic listings within that search contain content from many seasoned Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ad Search Engine Marketing (SEM) experts and there are a few respected and familiar names I recognise there like Lee Odden and Andy Beal, who has also written 'Radically Transparent'. However, there are also a lot of links to those who are clearly doing their best to game Google's search results, and offer to do the same for you, in a fairly cynical 'digital dirty laundry cleaner' approach. Now, that's a fair enough business model, and good luck to those seeking to take advantage of a new opportunity... I am all for people monitoring and being aware of what's being said about them, and joining in the conversation, but it worries me that many of the 'ORM Experts' focus only on burying bad news - not on honestly engaging customers, talking and listening, having conversations, being open and transparent about failures. It's still a 'let's whitewash it over' approach. When things are not going well, it's perhaps appealing to think that you can hire an expert to make the bad news magically go away, and leave only glowing, sunny reports about you online. But it's also a hopelessly outdated mode of thinking that assumes one can control the messages that one is pushing out to make sure the spin and the hype is just right for people to hear. It's also the equivalent of sweeping dust under the carpet. Nothing has gone away, it's just not visible. Stop! The genie is out of the bottle. The conversation is going to happen about you, your organisation, your services, your products, despite your efforts to control it, and the more you try to suppress honest opinion, the louder and more visible such opinion will become. If you're bad, people talk about it - so concentrate on being good and getting better, not on hiding your mistakes. You made them - move on. The message that supports the idea that you can influence and control how you appear online should not be about painting over the cracks or hiding things - it should be about listening to your customers, and talking with them openly and honestly, wherever they choose to have that conversation. When the phrase 'your reputation' is squeezed into the same sentence as 'social media' and 'marketing' - watch out. If you hear that, it's increasingly likely that the speaker or author has missed the central tenet of what Web 2.0 embodies - everybody is the media, and everybody is potentially just as influential as anyone else. So the next time you hear someone say they are an expert in Online Reputation Management, ask yourself why they are pitching themselves to companies who have something to hide, rather than focusing on those who have something to share. Nobody likes to see bad news, but the days have long gone when you could hide it away and hope people forget about it. Google does not forget. You can take a number of steps to help manage your online reputation, and if you can't do this yourself, by all means hire others help you. But be careful to choose someone who knows the difference between full transparency and partial disappearance.

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Image via WikipediaSocietas Privata Europaea (SPE) is a proposed EU-wide company type designed specifically for small to medium sized companies to operate in EU member countries, which could be enacted as soon as 2009. This is a core part of the Small Business Act for Europe, which the European Commission unveiled at the end of June, based on ten guiding principles and proposing policy actions for both the Commission and Member States. Here are some of the headlines in what is being planned:

• An SPE formation should be effected within 7 days.
• A cap on obtaining business licences and permits of one month.
• Lower VAT for services supplied locally.
• SMEs can set up their company in the same form, no matter if they do business in their own Member State or in another.
• Cut the administrative burden by 25% by 2012.

The press release begins with the wonderful phrase "a step towards a Europe of entrepreneurs, with less red tape and more red carpet for Europe's 23 million SMEs". [English Version] [Dutch Version] A set of Frequently Asked Questions also helps to explain the benefits of this initiative. The lawyers, accountants, international tax experts, company formation outfits and administrative bureaucrats will hate this, as they have long grown fat from the cumbersome and often antiquated legislation and regulations that small businesses are forced to deal with, often irrespective of their size, and the necessity to follow separate, complex, and expensive company formation rules and registrations in each country. I would not be too surprised to see attempts from these types of organisations to slow down and undermine this initiative, as it of course lessens their role, and reduces the number of intermediaries involved when a company expands and works in more than one country. However, the European entrepreneurs of today and tomorrow will love this - and it is in the long-term interests of every member nation in Europe to support this type of initiative. This is how one creates the jobs of tomorrow. It is a sad fact that long-term enlightened thinking has not always been a strong point for politicians and entrenched vested interests in Europe, so it is up to enterepreneurs across Europe to applaud, support and spread the word about this initiative.

A formal announcement has been made today that Yahoo!, Microsoft, Verisign, Google and IBM will all join the OpenID Foundation as Board Members.

What exactly is OpenID? The way they put it at MyOpenID, which is one of many OpenID providers, is simple and compelling: "Start using the last username and password you'll ever need. Signing up with myOpenID gets you:

• Secure control of your digital identity
• Easy sign-in on enabled sites
• Account activity reports
• Ability to manage multiple personas for different sites, and a whole lot more!"

I think we all find it very useful to be able to just need to remember one sign-in for many different web sites - and it's also useful to be able to control the level of information and detail that people can see associated with a 'persona' - I can choose to have different information and types of information available for my different social and business 'personas'. It also means that you can more easily update your details, and not worry that dozens of different sites have what might be out-of-date information.

Yahoo enabled openID a few weeks ago, as reported at TheNextWeb Blog, and with this announcement, OpenID seems to be close to becoming the global industry standard for online identity, where a single sign-on will allow access to entirely separate resources, and it should also increase the security of one's personal identity, and lessen the scope for phishing and ID theft. The OpenID announcement is rightfully bullish about the progress thats been made.

Last year, OpenID grew by leaps and bounds both as a technology and as a community. At the beginning of 2006, there were fewer than 20-million OpenID enabled URLs and less than 500 websites where they could be used. Today there are over a quarter of a billion OpenIDs and well over 10,000 websites to accept them.

At the same time, they also acknolwedge that although Yahoo!'s implentation was a good start, there is still a job to do to make OpenID "clear and comprehensible to those who aren’t geeks."

So, is OpenID clear?

Speakers are being confirmed daily for 2008's European Web 2.0 Event: The Next Web, and include Robert Scoble, Tech Geek Blogger & Author of ‘Naked Conversations‘, Werner Vogels, CTO at Amazon, and Gil Penchina, CEO at Wikia. Now in its third year, the Amsterdam event's focus this April is on quality content, and extensive networking opportunities. Organisers anticipate at least 700 web savvies, internet influentials, and industry journalists from over 20 countries will be in Amsterdam, to be inspired, have fun and do business. This year, attending The Next Web Conference gets you free entrance to BrightLive (European version of Nextfest).