I just came back from Duck Creek and had a relaxing afternoon feeding ducks & geese. Now, I am checking my e-mail. Suddenly, I saw a website: http://are4us.com   (See attached image below)   I did a simple lookup. The DNS registration information is this.

With my limited language knowledge, I realize that the website (written in Portugese) means:  I have a millionaire mind!    or I want to become a millionaire.

Because it is quite funny, I am going to give my two cents on the .com topic. The dotcom era (~ year 2000) was an epoch of excess, much like the tulip craze. There were companies in silicon valley that had bathroom size offices and a single computer. But, because they owned hot .com URLs, they were worth millions or billions, depending where you place the commas. Perhaps that era will return, if you have a sufficiently visited Facebook URL or twitter rapidly nowadays.

As for me, I believe in creating community value.

For people following my blog, which are not many, my domain is are4.us. When I registered for this domain over 5 years ago, I had absolute zero plan in making money from my domain address. All I was thinking at that moment was about sharing my personal christmas video greeting card with my friends @ year 2005. Ok, I have been pretty lazy @ making video greeting cards, particularly I have been busy with other things.

Money is an instrument used in or to facilitate transactions. It is really a tool allowing people, organizations, and companies to gauge the value of certain products, goods, services, and exchangeable items. Without a product or things, money has no implicit value. I can decree that I am a billionaire. But, does the world accept that declaration? Of course not!!!

Therefore, money is based on commonly recognized value. Otherwise, the situation will be just like these worthless currencies.

OK, I don’t dot com anymore. Does that me I hate money? Of course not, because I have a stack of bills sitting on my table at this moment. My next chore is to write checks and clear what I owe other people and fulfill my obligations.

Facebook and Twitter are two of the hottest Internet properties on the planet @ this moment. But, do people, like you and me, need to pay to update our FB status feed or to twit? The answer is no. In fact, there would be revolts & public unrests, the moment those companies charge people even 1/10 of one cent. Even though, those companies have .coms in their URL.

So what are going on there?

* Did Mark Zuckerberg ever said he’s plans be a billionaire when he started FB?

Probably not. Successful entrepreneur succeed not because they focus on money. But, they excel @ providing most value for their customers, users, or contribute most to the community. Wealth is a byproduct, like bee & honey. While I am not against lean entrepreneurs. It is necessary to start a business. The whole point should not be on money, but on providing most value for others.

* How do you create value when you don’t charge people money for service, especially when you need to pay infrastructure and development costs?

The answer is simple. Looking at this from users’ perspective. If your product or services create enough value for enough people, communities will be built around your offerings, whether it is service, products, or consulting. Our world works in a funny way. What you don’t ask maybe your reward. What you crave maybe bad for you, e.g. cocaine, STD, …

I am not saying you need to live an austere life as a monk or nun. That’s not the point. It’s just a philosophy, that there is more joy from giving than taking by force.

All universal religions doctrines teach us about compassion and giving should come above all. OK, I am a Darwinist and absolute believer in the evolution theory. Yet, even if you read his work closely, the following principles hold:

1. Adaptation to the environment
2. The strongest competition is between the same species. Yes, the struggle between the prey and predator is no the strongest, on a global scale
3. Diversification of species – to survives, species will evolve to fit within different stratums of the same living space. After a long period of evolution, there will be more species than before, each specializing into different role. That is why the old-world (the Euro-Asia & Africa continents) have most species in our world, more than Americas, or Australia.
4. Nature mutation as a cause for specie creation, some will succeed, others will fail.
5. Domestication by Man
6. Co-evolution between prey & predator, and symbiotic provider & providee
7. Survival of the fittest

Going back to the case of Facebook and Twitter, I believe if they change their URL to {yourname}.Fb or {yourname}.twitter, it would work as well as or maybe better than the current situation of Facebook.com/{yourname} or Twitter.com/{yourname} The whole point is that they provide something valuable to our world. Thus, there is residual value for those companies, installed by us as a community.

So, the truth is this: if everyone wants to be a millionaire. Maybe, it’s not even worth it. OK, you can just listen this song & be a fake billionaire, adopt some babies and give away some Mercedes.

As for me, I am perfectly happy to simply serve the community.

Cheers my friends.