The Human Side of Web Hosting
M6.Net, a web-hosting company (What the hell is that?) has turned this techno-phobic writer into a working member of a new age information and communication team. Let me tell you a story, a story about a crazy company that sits high up in the clouds looking at its global community. I had always been afraid of computers, such a sterile environment, and no trees to sit under. Of course this has become redundant with the advent of laptops and Broadband Internet, but here’s the truth of the matter: I believed computers were for geeks and nerds, and the radiation from the screens caused one to go sterile or infertile. The day I walked into M6.Net my assumptions were not altered…looking around at the bland walls, the plant-less vacuum of faces staring into screens tapping away foreign codes that only astro-chipmunks could comprehend…’Why am I here?’ I thought as the people started to talk computer jargon to me. ‘What do these freaks want with a creative writer? Let me out of here quick!’
After talking to one guy for about fifteen minutes he finally realized I didn’t understand a thing he was saying. It was like I had just gotten off a spaceship on the planet Googamooga! Then one of the ‘bosses’ came over for a little chat. I say ‘boss’ because the owners of this company don’t act like authorities or the top of a hierarchal chain. They say they’d rather see all humans as equals, “Don’t call me sir, please call me Michael.” he had said with a smile. This made me feel a tiny bit more relaxed; I still wanted to leave, as it just wasn’t my kind of place if you know what I mean. Then Michael and I had an interview. He asked me if I knew anything about computers or the Internet. I said ‘nope’. He said ‘cool’. I knew then that I was in for an unexpected twist in my life’s journey. Well, life is a mystery anyway, I guess I needed to learn not to ‘judge a book by its cover’, to spit out a cliché that has been used a few too times but with good reason.
This guy Michael then went on to ask me what I wanted to do with my life, where did I see myself in the future? I said I sure didn’t see myself working for some Internet company. After a bit of relaxing laughter, Michael said it just might be pretty cool to hear from a perspective of a technological novice, as most of the world was in similar shoes as myself. He intimated that maybe some of the reasons people were so afraid of the
Internet was because they had no one to relate to on a simple level when it came to working with the new mysterious, unknown technology. I said I’d be willing to give it a shot, and so began my adventure into the far reaches of ‘cyberspace’. Luckily I already had a spacesuit from my intergalactic journeys taken in an overactive imaginary youth. I strapped in, we hit light speed, and the bland walls and monotonous tapping became a blurred rainbow and tribal rhythm in my consciousness. I realized eventually that I had been given a ticket to join in with the human evolution process. The Internet became the tool I had always needed to connect with the spirits of the terrestrial world.
After getting to know my team colleagues through face-to-face interaction and Messenger email chats in the open-spaced offices (no walls), I realized these people weren’t mindless zombie aliens as I had once expected. These were real actual human souls like myself! I just couldn’t believe it; my previous perception of computer nerds was destroyed. These people lived whole and exciting lives inside and outside the office. The reason they had once looked blank-faced was only because they had reached a deep level of concentration needed to solve the problems presented in this process of furthering humanity’s communication possibilities. I now realize that each and every individual is constantly treading on worlds that will always be unknown to me.
M6.Net is a web-hosting company, that is true, but like every snowflake, everything in existence is individual. The things they do here, the ideas that are formed, these are like no other place in the Universe. Not everything good in life has to scream out its beauty. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder and if one looks hard enough at anything you will see the hidden magic beneath the surface. I have discovered that a web-hosting company is helping the people of our world to unite, I mean, how many other web hosts have creative writers writing children’s stories for education sites? These people have helped to teach me to ‘look outside the box’, to use another cliché. It’s funny how clichés actually ring true. It’s also funny how good things in life make life good.
By Jesse S. Somer
http://www.m6.net
Jesse S. Somer is walking, talking story just like every other human being on the Earth.
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