For the past couple of weeks, I've been hearing, reading (accosted at every turn) by professional profiles of people who 'own' this business or that website.
At the risk of sounding a little crochety, I can't help thinking, 'stop with the spin already' and just tell me what you really want to say. Because you're a single operator, working with and for yourself (and maybe a virtual assistant) and the idea that you 'own' your online business or media production company is a bit like me saying, I own my blog.
No, I possess a password which provides me with privileged access to a self-constructed profile created using open source software (blogger), which for the moment remains FOC, although could at any time (and without any prior warning) disappear from the indexed face of the world wide web.
Besides, isn't 'owning' a piece of the www a little like laying claim to a piece of George Street, just because you rent offices there? Maybe I'm missing the point, but while ownership was once a sign (and still is for some) a measure of success, online is about engagement, interactivity and laying claim to a cyber-territory or 'community' rather than owning a piece of paper, renting offices and installing a 'director of first impressions' to make you 'look the part'.
Online, stake your claim, but be yourself. Transparency is key, or at least it should be.
Afterall, the 'Western web' is housed in approximately seven (7) primary locations and we don't have access to the much larger 'Eastern web' we that lies behind 'The Great Firewall of China'.
So the idea of 'owning' anything online seems a little ludicrous in the extreme, doesn't it...?
At the risk of sounding a little crochety, I can't help thinking, 'stop with the spin already' and just tell me what you really want to say. Because you're a single operator, working with and for yourself (and maybe a virtual assistant) and the idea that you 'own' your online business or media production company is a bit like me saying, I own my blog.
No, I possess a password which provides me with privileged access to a self-constructed profile created using open source software (blogger), which for the moment remains FOC, although could at any time (and without any prior warning) disappear from the indexed face of the world wide web.
Besides, isn't 'owning' a piece of the www a little like laying claim to a piece of George Street, just because you rent offices there? Maybe I'm missing the point, but while ownership was once a sign (and still is for some) a measure of success, online is about engagement, interactivity and laying claim to a cyber-territory or 'community' rather than owning a piece of paper, renting offices and installing a 'director of first impressions' to make you 'look the part'.
Online, stake your claim, but be yourself. Transparency is key, or at least it should be.
Afterall, the 'Western web' is housed in approximately seven (7) primary locations and we don't have access to the much larger 'Eastern web' we that lies behind 'The Great Firewall of China'.
So the idea of 'owning' anything online seems a little ludicrous in the extreme, doesn't it...?
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