Weaves The Web

I have a tightly held, high touch marketing and design company called Weaves The Web Design Studio. I mainly build websites for those who help others. I shifted my business about 3 years ago to focus on working with people and projects that I truly believe in. I wanted to help people that well… help people. That is not to say that real estate agents and corporations don’t help people. They truly do. However, I really felt the need to be excited about and proud of the projects that are in my portfolio.

Since 1996 I have been helping people not only better use technology, but to also cope with it as well. I’m no inventor of the stuff, I just try to tap into it and help people hopefully use it to their advantage. Which brings me to my topic today: the power of the internet and what it has truly come to mean in our lives. For many it means ALOT! For some of us our dependency upon it can be quite scary at times, but it is definitely a step in the direction of placing your faith in something that doesn’t really exist, at least not in the way that we often think of as something being tangible. The web is just that….a web. It is a web of computers and servers which are accessible via this interconnected network we call the internet…and nobody owns it! What a concept.

Recently the company that takes care of the servers that host our websites performed a migration and a systems upgrade. They had projected a time frame in which there would be some down time, however, almost 48 hours later (and counting) many of our websites are still not accessible via the internet. I can only say that this has been and continues to be quite the experience. Apparently the massive amounts of email that had been in the queue during the downtime (mostly comprised of spam no doubt) overwhelmed the servers when the sites were brought back online  and the techs began troubleshooting and working at regulating this tremendous flow. Obviously this upgrade has turned into a nightmare for this team. And I for one would like to offer them some support.

Here’s what I have learned and experienced as a result of this situation:

1) My clients rock! Most of my clients have been consoling me! How amazing is that. I think my change in focus is paying off big time. I am so blessed to be doing business with such people. Just thank you all for your support during this mini crisis (I say that because, well no one is dying here, but I know when things like this happen that we don’t have much control over it can feel like we’re dying!)

2)Just how important the web and our websites really are to our life. (I think I’m going to start charging more money for my websites now that I know just how much people can’t live without them!!!) (just kidding)

3)The company and the technicians at the data center have been suffering far more than anyone in this whole thing and they need support, not poison arrows and negative energy directed at them. So send them some positive intentions and good thoughts. They are doing the best that they can and working around the clock. You know the internet and computer technologies are not a perfect science. Skilled people are coping in this wild west frontier just as those who know little. The nature of technology is that we are eternally being stretched as new technologies come online and everything changes at the speed of light! We need to be honoring and assisting those who are brave enough to help us with technology. It is a very difficult field to work in, because most consumers either know nothing or just enough to be dangerous and this makes people uncomfortable.

4)That there are just some things in life that you can’t control. The internet is definitely one of them. We can try, but that is the best we can do. Yes, it can be incredibly frustrating. Most of us have a love hate relationship with technology, but most of us would agree that it’s benefits and the benefits that it promises for our future far outweigh the negatives. It’s like money…it’s what you make of it. And also, like money, it just makes you more of what you already are.

I’d like to say thank you to my clients who are weathering this storm. I know we’re all going to be back online really soon. I’d also like to say thank you and send some positive thoughts to the team of people who haven’t slept for 4 days, who’ve been taking all kinds heat for this downtime and only want to serve us better. My company has been working with this team since 1999 and they have never provided anything except the most excellent and timely service. I have complete faith in our ability to move through this.  Sometimes, when the web we weave unravels, we find out what’s really holding it all together and it isn’t usually something you can touch, taste or see; It’s our attitudes and our hearts. This web is strong. It’s going to be worth it. You’ll see!

May you be Light,

Renee Bledsoe
She Who Weaves The Web