Work on SMEs in FFII
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In preparation of the CEAPME conference in Istanbul, we need to get a quick overview of FFII's involvement with SMEs, our work so far and the upcoming tasks.
FFII as a link between Civil Society, Science and SMEs
Mission statement contains reference to entrepreneurs
centering on net-based education, alliance between SMEs, science & civil society
recent conference of FFII+MERIT+CEAPME illustrates this
- board has given green light for associate membership in CEA-PME
- working together daily in Bxl office, need to broaden and intensify, here to learn
Areas of Concern for SMEs and FFII
Preventing Monopolism & Proprietarisation of Infrastructures
open standards important, skeptical about vendor lock-in of Microsoft & the like
in favor of an integrated system of Intellectual Property which is fast, cheap and narrow, critical of patents
- critical of activities that raise state quota, for lean taxation systems, low or no taxes on information goods, but positive about state involvement in basic research, open infrastructures and education
- cautiously skeptical about some extensions to the free trade agenda that deprive local communities of their space of maneuver and tend to favor monopolistation by big players. GATS and Bolkestein Service Directive have this aspect.
- need to learn more about these things
Counter-Balancing Legislative Capture by Professional Groups
- patent lawyers have been speaking in the name of large companies without many people noticing
- Large companies have more specialised departments than SMEs
- Grassroots education efforts with Internet means
- Conferences with MERIT, CEAPME et al
Communicating with our Supporters
This section will be moved to SarjiEn soon
1200 corporate supporters in database
registered mostly through aktiv
- openssh-tunnel:
shell1$ slogin -p 50022 -L 3333:ffii.org:5432 user@ffii.org;
- shell2$ psql -d ffii -h localhost -p 3333
- important tables: pnom, mail, padr, teln, asoc, firma, href
- need to raise 100k eur soon
- for writing, use
feedback system: allows collecting of some statistics
- linked to database, ask ccorn to help
paper letters, ask peterg or jmaebe to help, see PR materials
