[Fsfe-ie] Anyone with contacts in SFA or in ISME? (Small FirmsAssociation, Irish SMEs association)

[adam beecher]

> After the great anti-swpat press release from UEAPME I 
> decided to contact the Irish members to ask them to help out 
> the national level lobbying.
> 
> (UEAPME represents 11million SMEs, employing 50 million 
> people, here's their  press release: 
> http://wiki.ffii.org/Ueapme050427En )
> 
> There are two Irish members: www.sfa.ie and www.isme.ie
> 
The SFA are a strange bunch. When I was a committee member of IrelandOffline
I organised a "blackout" that asked Internet users to boycott the Internet
and telephones for one day to draw attention to the lack of unmetered dialup
and broadband products in Ireland.

Pat Delaney of the SFA almost immediately attacked the idea, saying that it
would damage Irish business. This despite the fact that it was (obviously)
an entirely voluntary affair, and *could* have done his members more good
than harm in the long term.

With some difficulty IrelandOffline eventually arranged a meeting with
Delaney, and my impression of that meeting (I wasn't there) was that it was
quite a battle getting him to understand the long term issues at hand. He
did come around apparently, but I think the relationship died there.

With that in mind, I'd be inclined to think that: a) The SFA tends to think
very much in the short term; and b) it's a bit too open to lobbying from
larger corporations than it should be. They seem to have a different
definition of "small business" to me anyway.

adam