W.D. International

It’s awesome when someone writes a song for your business. Shout out to Ricky B. for this awesome track! People, please feel free to write songs and do awesome stuff for us.

Lyrics:
Get your website going,
Get your idea off the ground,
We’re W.D. International,
We hope you’ll come around.

Website for your business,
A website for your book,
Anything you want to build,
Let our team take a look.

From LA to San Diego
Were busy all the time,
With new projects coming in,
While still trying to make this rhyme…

So let us know what you’re working on
We’d love to help you out…
‘Cause web hosting and web design,
Is what we’re all about. (2x)

Written by Richard Schumacher, writer and editor of the W.D. International company blog, and Professor at Concordia University in Ann Arbor, Michigan

“Do not go where the path may lead on. Instead go where there is no path and leave a trail”. – Henry David Thoreau

For many of us, we live our lives in the first half of this statement. The path has been laid before us. It’s easier, it’s comfortable, it has fewer traps and there is far less risk involved. We are able to travel along at a reasonable pace – as quickly (or slowly) as we want and we can sustain this for as long as we feel necessary in order to accomplish what we have decided is good enough for our lives. But as you read this, do you find yourself cringing, thinking that I may have just written a synopsis of your company or maybe even your own biography?

Some might say that they were not designed to be trailblazers. We were created to be supporters – those people who stay out of the limelight but play an integral role in the success of the show. I can agree to a certain point. Yes, some of us were created to be a center stage, taking our bows as the crowds cheer wildly. And yes, some of us were created to be backstage making sure the lights came on and the curtain opened properly. But no matter which role you play, shouldn’t you strive to do it in a manner that establishes the highest level of professionalism, integrity, and skill so that there is no doubting your abilities?

A new year is a great opportunity to evaluate past performance and establish new goals for the next 12, 24, and even 60 months. Everyone connected with your company will gain valuable insights about how to build your business if they know where you’re headed. Remember – a GPS is a helpful technology, but if you don’t give it the destination it can’t show you how to get there.

Let your website help you set the course for your company. Create internal links where information can be presented, ideas posted, and plans constructed. Once established, share these goals with your employees, investors, and the customers who support you. All of these people play a critical role in achieving your goals. Once they know where you want to go, be sure to present all of these things in a clean, clear, and effective fashion so that they can help you get there. We want to see you achieve your goals, to blaze the trail for your company to become the leader in your field. What are you trying to accomplish? We can help you get there.

W.D. International will be going offline on January 18th 2012 for most of the day to protest and stop the Internet censorship bills SOPA & PIPA. Stand with us and help stop these bills from passing. Scroll to the bottom to see what you can do right now to help.

Here is a quick review of the debate as it comes to a head this week (via abcNews):

The Bills in Congress:

PIPA is a Senate bill originally called the Protect IP Act. “IP” is short, in this case, for Intellectual Property, such as movies, music or writing that, in the digital age, can easily be copied and transmitted online without payment to their creators.

SOPA — the Stop Online Piracy Act — is a similar bill in the House.
The idea of both, as described by their sponsors, was to stop the illegal copying of movies or music, something that Hollywood studios, music publishers and many others believe is threatening their businesses. Supporters range from the Country Music Association to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from the Motion Picture Association of America to the AFL-CIO.

But not everyone agrees. These bills pitted Hollywood against the goals of many in Silicon Valley.

The Objections

Internet entities such as Wikipedia, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit and Tumblr said the two bills would force them to be online police and hold them responsible if users of their sites link to pirated content.

The companies said the bills could require your Internet provider to block websites that are involved in digital file sharing. And search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing could be stopped from linking to them — antithetical, they argue, to the ideal of an open Internet.

“While I support their goal of reducing copyright infringement (which I don’t believe these acts would accomplish), I am shocked that our lawmakers would contemplate such measures that would put us on a par with the most oppressive nations in the world,” said Sergey Brin, one of the co-founders of Google, in a December post on Google+.

The White House weighed in on Jan. 14. In a post on the White House website, the U.S. Chief Technology Officer and two colleagues wrote, “While we believe that online piracy by foreign websites is a serious problem that requires a serious legislative response, we will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.”

The Protest Movement

Several major websites, including Wikipedia, Reddit and TwitPic, said they would “go dark” on Wednesday to show their opposition to the two bills in Congress. (A list of participants is at SOPAStrike.com.)

If you visit one of the protesting sites Wednesday, you may get an error message, but they’re more likely to post messages urging you to join them in opposition to SOPA and PIPA.

Others, such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, have not said they would join. Twitter’s CEO, Dick Costolo, made a widely-cited tweet on Monday: “Closing a global business in reaction to single-issue national politics is foolish.”

Google today said it would remain online, but show its opposition to the bills with a link Wednesday on its home page in the U.S. “Like many businesses, entrepreneurs and web users, we oppose these bills because there are smart, targeted ways to shut down foreign rogue websites without asking American companies to censor the Internet,” said a Google spokesperson.

What You Can Do

• Send a letter to your senator with this online form
• Get in contact with Congress

This month’s newsletter is out. Read it here if you haven’t seen it yet. Also you can subscribe to our newsletter on our homepage at http://www.wdinternational.com.