[jaclaz]

I find more intriguing/interesting than the whole actual Estonian e-id/whatever technological achievements, that the President of a country writes an article (of course not very critical on the way the governement administration is managed) on qz.com.

[dna_polymerase]

See also, Erdogan on WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/turkey-is-stepping-up-where-oth...

[jaclaz]

Yep, though I wouldn't personally put the Wall Street Journal on the same level as qz.

That they (WSJ) published Erdogan's piece is (to me) perplexing, but for completely different reasons.

This one on qz.com seems, at least to me, nothing different from the several "puff" articles we have read in the last few years about the digital "revolution" in Estonia (and e-residency, etc.), but till now they were all or almost all by either enthusiasts/futurists/thintankers or by people directly or indirectly involved in the program at a much lower level than the President.

Personally I always had the feeling that these pieces are not entirely unlike the good ol' gnome business plan:

1) get digital in Estonia (id, residency, etc.)

2) ?

3) profit

No doubts that there may be a number of non-Estonians that may benefit from the one or the other provisions of the program, but all in all they should be a niche of "digital nomads" and/or "digital only" very small firms.

[atlasunshrugged]

Love the gnome business plan, I'm a huge South Park fan.

But I do think there is real value in it for some people (especially digital nomads) but things like e-Residency running a company remotely definitely aren't going to benefit everyone, building a solution that solves every person's problem is a crazy undertaking

[elgenie]

Would you be as surprised if given equivalent technological achievements the mayor of, say, Oklahoma City or Richmond VA, did some horn tooting on qz.com to try to drum up outside investment and interest? Estonia’s population is between that of those two modestly sized metros.

[jaclaz]

I don't know, by those metrics, the Mayor of - say - Paris or London has much more relevance than - still say - the King and Prime Minister of Sweden or of Norway.

Or the Mayor of Rome more or less the same relevance as the President of Ireland.

Maybe I am too old fashioned, but I see a president of an independent country, small as it might be, as having a different, higher status than a mayor.

[atlasunshrugged]

I definitely think there is a different level between the president or PM of an independent country to a Mayor of even a much larger city. However, there's also a difference (depending on the country) of the role of President vs. PM vs. Monarch and whether their duties are more promotional/ceremonial versus legislative

[elgenie]

The status you personally ascribe to various positions is obviously up to you.

Estonia is sovereign, but whether it’s “independent” from the Eurozone on which it relies for economic sustenance (they get back 5x what they put into the EU budget) and security guarantees and over whose regulations their influence is commensurate to their population is also in the eye of the beholder.