Actions: Develop a collaboration network—online and physically
To develop a collaboration network that will involve actors online and physically to strengthen the competitive position of EU companies and boost entrepreneurship on the Web.
A selection of actions that could be taken to achieve the purpose stated above:
- To end up with more digital entrepreneur rock stars, entrepreneurs need to be treated like real rock stars: requirements include venues (incubators, co-working spaces), managers (network of business mentors, coaches and investors) and groupies (visibility in the press, at events, in political circles). Think of it as an Erasmus for entrepreneurs.
- Access to early-stage capital is a problem for startups in many member states. A public funding framework for the financing of early-stage ideas and businesses as well as the promotion of research, innovation and idea commercialization within universities is needed.
- To create a single European market for European SMEs, deregulation or at least simplification of certain regulations would go a long way.
- Alleviate problems caused by fragmentation (e.g. introduce a common roaming policy to fight telecommunication fragmentation) and embrace standardization by building alliances with stakeholders like the W3C and IETF, creating a federated authentication system etc.