Digital Biographer™

Changing Campaigns: “The Writing on MY (Facebook) Wall” by Hugh Weber - www.workplaydogood.com

“In 1896, Mark Hanna orchestrated a successful Presidential campaign from the front porch of William McKinley’s Canton, Ohio home. Supporters would congregate to hear McKinley pontificate on the issues of the day all from the steps of his residence. While his opponent traveled the country engaging in the give and take of town hall forums and delivering over 600 speeches, McKinley set his own schedule, slept in his own bed and won the election.”

In a chapter entitled ‘Changing Campaigns: “The Writing on MY (Facebook) Wall”‘ Hugh asks why he didn’t get a @hughwebber twitter from Barack Obama. ‘Despite their branded networks and flash-enabled beauty, our candidates remain firmly entrenched on the front porch of their online homes. I can “support” them, but will they ever “friend” me?’

>> Read the full story from Hugh Weber 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.

2.0, authors, conversation 2.0, e-government, social media, sound aoc2, Hugh Weber, politics, social media

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.

2.0, commerce, e-government, startup Business, EU, European Commission, European Union, Member State of the European Union, Small business, Small Business Act for Europe

I was impressed to see Prime Minister Gordon Brown is on Twitter, albeit unofficially hooked up via the 10 Downing Street Web Site RSS feeds. So I added Gordon to those whose tweet nothings I listen in to, so that I can find out what they are up to in real time…

However, it looks like’s Gordon’s idea of real time is a little behind mine. At 15:24, I got notice of his morning press briefing, as shown below. Hey Gordon, it’s the afternoon!

It appears that morning press briefings are only made public in the afternoon. It does take some time to write these things up, I suppose. And then one must have lunch, then check them again, of course…

Actually, I’ll get back to you on this story later…

2.0, e-government, share, social media, streams downing street, gordon brown, rss, tweets, Twitter, twitterfeed