HostingCon 2007: Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, There is a Hosting Community

HostingCon has a bit of a reputation as being the event for the Web hosting business. The singular focus of the event, makes it specifically relevant to a certain base of attendees, which in turn makes it particularly possible for those attendees to do business.

That’s not so much a criticism of other events per se, but an attempt to highlight the specific strength of HostingCon, which appears to be that you can, very specifically, put your finger on the business value of the thing. You can see the deals going down all around you. And if you’re in the right business, it’s very easy to come across the sorts of people you want to talk to.

What I mean is that I’m on board with that assertion that HostingCon is the event for the Web hosting business. And a lot of the value, it seems to me, lies in the resource represented by the people in attendance.

It’s hard to dispute that there exists a hosting business. It’s right there – a tangible thing that leaves no room for confusion. But I’ve always been sort of unsure about the somewhat nebulous notion of a hosting community.

But I left HostingCon this year with the feeling that this community exists. In the sessions, the shared ideas and just about every element of the event, there was a sort of unity of purpose.

Sure, there are notable Web hosting companies like Go Daddy or Web.com that presumably stand to gain very little from an environment like this - or, really, from interacting with other hosting providers in this way. But that doesn’t make the community any less relevant.

So what?

Well, there’s potential in a community. And there’s power in that potential. Web hosts could use that power to steer the business in the right directions. There are questions in the Web hosting world that can’t be answered by a single individual, company or authority. Those issues were present at HostingCon, whether in terms of technology or ethics.

I’m interested to see whether that community goes about answering those questions, and what those answers might be.