Thanking the ‘faceless’

Before I do anything else, I want to express gratitude for some people and things. For some years now, I have been the silent beneficiary of so many, many goods and services provided for free over the internet! It’s time I thanked at least some of my benefactors!

In my experience, there are ‘free lunches’ and I have been well nourished by a seemingly inexhaustible supply of technical, spiritual, personal, social, cultural, academic (to name a few) meals without having to spend a cent on them!

Ah, but perhaps you’re wondering about that well-oiled corporate concept of ‘hidden costs’. Well, yes. My phone/internet bill, my computer, the time spent on surfing that, maybe, could have been used in direct income-generation, electricity to power my hardware, (and while we’re at it, what about the food that keeps me alive and the roof above my head and the clothes that I wear, all of which directly or indirectly contribute to my being able to sit at my pc and trawl the net?) These may indeed be costs to me, but they certainly have not benefited my numerous and varied ‘faceless’ benefactors! Not directly, anyway :-)

What I am really getting at is that there is so much that is available to us for free over the internet, most of which is mediated in a faceless environment. And, lets be honest, it is easier to be less grateful (or not grateful at all) when there is no warm-blooded person delivering a good or service to you in person. I mean, who do you thank? A name? A vague image of someone, whoknowswhere, doing whoknowswhat?

So, this is my attempt to say a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to just some of my faceless benefactors. There are many, many others of course, like Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Google, Wikepedia, Online Etymology Dictionary…

The thought does cross my mind that with entities as big and complex as these, is there anyone who could actually meaningfully acknowledge and appreciate a ‘thank you’? I mean, is there someone officially appointed as “Receiver of Thanks and Appreciation’? And does it matter?

Well, yes, it does matter. A great deal. It matters that I can feel grateful and that I feel a desire to express that gratitude. So, yes. It matters to me. And I believe that because it matters to one, it matters to the whole, in whatever way that ‘matters’ gets transmitted! And, if in some way, that ‘mattering’ materializes as hot cash for our faceless benefactors, well, I say, how wonderful!

So, here goes:

· WordPress for making available their elegant, user-friendly blog technology FREE! Even a novice like me was able to set up a beautiful looking blog in next to no time. Thank you to all of you!

· WordPress for making available, for FREE, installation of their technology on your website. I attempted to do it myself and got as far as opening up their html files. But, I was unable to replace their code with the code from my webpages. Some day I may be able to do this sort of thing but I was truly grateful for the free installation service that WordPress offers.

WordPress, you may be faceless to most of us, which is why I especially want to acknowledge and thank the people that you really are and the wonderful work that you do – THANK YOU!

· Michael Hancock, who helps out at WordPress, and who contacted me in less than 8 hours from the time I submitted my request for the free installation service. (I am guessing that Michael did not respond sooner only because of the time difference! I’m presuming that Michael is somewhere in the USA while I am in Australia).

I was not expecting to hear from WordPress for at least 24 hours, and even then, I was not certain that I would qualify for their free service. But, 2 emails from Michael and 2 from me later and my WordPress powered blog was available and firing from my domain hosting server! All that took about 30 minutes!

Michael – THANK YOU!

(By the way, in case you’re wondering, my expressions of gratitude here are entirely voluntary and attract no remuneration (at least none that I know of :-)) from either WordPress or any of the benefactors that I mention here).

· Mike Landis of Mach5, I want to say a huge ‘thank-you’ to you. Mach5 is another beautiful and elegant software, available for FREE. It enables me to send personalized email messages to my mailing lists! Now, I had been using the software for free as part of Mach 5’s 30-day trial offer when I decided to contact Mach5 to explore their ‘alternative’ payment options. Mike emailed me suggesting that I might pay by having a link to the Mach5 site from my website. I was very happy to do that but because I had not yet attracted much traffic to my site, did not actually do it. Now, however, with my blog up and running, I have a link to Mach5.

Mike – THANK YOU!

· Andrew Barnes at Glass Obelisk, I want to publicly thank you too! GO is my web host and Andrew, a young man who has just started uni this year, has been operating GO for a while now with some of his mates. I cannot commend enough his prompt, professional, no-task-is-too-much-for-me attitude. For someone who knew nothing about ftp, I was able to upload all my web files and have my website running in less than 24 hours, thanks to the patience, care and aptitude of this young entrepreneur. It was service that far exceeded the domain registration and hosting service I had paid for. I can see just see this young man going past the stars! (And I have not even met him face to face!)

Andrew – THANK YOU!

I have just realized that all of the people I have thanked above for the excellent products and services they provide are people I have never met in person! I have spoken over the phone to Andrew a couple of times, but most of our communication has been via email.

I remember when I was first introduced to the Internet almost 30 years ago. I got terribly excited. I just could not wait to get on and start ‘talking’ to people. Learning to do that, however, occurred in ‘fits and starts’ and I did get distracted and especially frustrated many a time. But I persevered right through the birth of my children, the career chase, the studies, the several relocations I made within and across countries, the divorce, the computer crashes and freeze-ups and all the other ‘happenings’ that constitute ‘life’!

What a journey! And now I am here and using this medium to do the things I had not dared to dream only years, and, in some cases, just months ago! Thank you to all who have accompanied me on this journey. Most of ‘you’ don’t know that you’ve traveled with me but I do and that’s what matters!

Thank you all!

Lucy