Location, location, location! Remember when that used to be important for business? Well, it's not important for e-business. Take GNi (mentioned in the last gentoo newsletter). Nowhere on the front page does it mention where their offices are. It doesn't say "we're a San Jose-based company ... ". How many clicks does it take you to find their location? I first went to "About Us", but that had no mention of it. Apparently, location is not relevant to a page about the company. Then I went to "Contact Us", which is usually a safe last resort. And sure enough, there it is. But GNi has a small website, on some company sites it takes me a bit of effort to even locate the "Contact Us" page, it's buried somewhere deep in the hierarchy, or the link is in 6pt font, so you're not meant to see it.

So I can only conclude from this that location doesn't matter. And in our globally interconnected world that may seem obvious. On the other hand, it may not. If you're looking for a web host, wouldn't you rather pick one in your timezone? So that when the server crashes, they have office hours at the same time as you? Or wouldn't you prefer a partner in your timezone for just about any kind of business? Or in fact in your vicinity, so that you don't have to fly to Cape Town for meetings?