I am working on an initiative - with Norwegian government backing - looking at ways in which "micro-business" may be supported across the "Hanseatic" area(Scotland, Norway initially).

In this "Northern Periphery" - as the EU calls it - microbusiness / self-employment are increasingly the rule, rather than the exception, and the proprietors of these businesses carry a lot of votes.

Our initiative promotes the use of:

(a) "Guarantee Societies" - allowing micro-businesses to club together both to engage in major procurements and to mutually guarantee bilateral credits; and

(b) "Capital Partnerships" - ie revenue/production sharing partnerships between investor and user of investment - which allow quasi Equity "micro-investment" (as opposed to micro credit) to be raised irrespective of the legal form of the microbusiness.

I believe that the big corporations are becoming increasingly "hollowed out" as most of the best people leave.

"Linked/networked small" will be the new "big" IMHO.

"The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed" William Gibson