christonium.com social website

FAQ

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 03:09:23 MST

What is Christonium?
Christonium is a platform that enables anyone to create a free web presence.

How do I create a website on Christonium?
Simply fill out this short form and then you’re ready to design your webpage, create categories and add content.

What features does a website on Christonium offer?
Christonium provides you with a set structure, and you can customize each element within that structure. You have full control over category structure and content and can easily add, modify and update any part of your account. Christonium also offers RSS feeds, precise privacy settings, advanced built-in search engine optimization as well as various social features.

Why do you call a site on Christonium a “social website”?
All sites on Christonium have several social aspects integrated to it, such as contacting, sharing and commenting features as well as an internal mail system that enables you to communicate with other Christonium sites and also enables anyone to write to your site.

Can I make a website for my business?
Yes. You can make a website for your company and advertise your business absolutely free. We only ask you to specify your intentions by creating a business account.

I want to put up private photos for my friends and family, is that possible?
Yes, Christonium enables you to make any category private under which you can store photos, documents and information. You can specify exactly what other accounts are granted access to any specific private category.

Can I use Christonium as a blog?
Yes, Christonium provides an excellent platform for a blog. It’s very easy to create, publish and organize content as well as design your site. Christonium also provides each site their own RSS feed so visitors can subscribe to your content.

I don’t have search engine optimization on my current website, can Christonium be helpful to me?
Each Christonium site comes with built in search engine optimization which have proved very effective. If you make a site on Christonium and put up good content, you have a very good chance at coming up high in the search engines for terms related to your content. We recommend anyone who wants greater exposure online to create an account on Christonium and publish content on a regular basis. If you already have a website, your Christonium site will create an effective complimentary web-presence.

I’m concerned about my personal online exposure, how protected am I when I use Christonium?
Christonium has gone to great lengths to assure users privacy. If you are concerned with your exposure online, Christonium provides a great platform because: we don’t allow any search engine to archive our internal systems; we don’t require any personal information; we don’t use persistent cookies and we do allow account holders control over their personal exposure to advertising.

Platform Of Social Websites Integrates RSS Feeds

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 08:47:52 MST

Christonium.com, A Publishing Network Of User-Generated Social Websites Announces RSS Feed Integration

Corvallis, Oregon, 9/05/2007 – Christonium.com, a platform that provides anyone the opportunity to create a free social website, today announces the implementation of RSS feeds. Each individual account on Christonium (also referred to as Social Website, or Desktop) have their own RSS feed that any visitor can subscribe to.

Christonium is a content-focused network where individuals as well as businesses can create free websites. The addition of RSS feeds provides each account on Christonium the tools to reach more people and provide content more efficiently to visitors, in the format of RSS feeds. Anyone who creates a site on Christonium receives this benefit automatically and any visitor that comes across a site on the Christonium Network can easily subscribe to any website.

About Christonium:

Christonium.com provides individuals as well as businesses a free platform that combines display, storage and communication. All users are publishers through their personal website where they can create categories, display and organize any content, share other user’s material and connect and communicate with different people. Christonium is powered by a custom-built application that offers several unique features such as: creative control over category structure and content, un-paralleled sharing features and precise privacy settings.

Through this platform, Christonium aims to provide people a truly useful place online that can be utilized to organize and share information whether for the purpose of displaying content publicly, or privately for selected people only. No matter whether you have an interest that you'd like to write about, or a business you wish to promote, you can make a site on Christonium absolutely free.

Christonium Integrates RSS Feeds

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 09:29:15 MST

Today Christonium announces the implementation of RSS Feeds. All public accounts on Christonium have their own individual feed that any visitor can subscribe to. This is a great features that enables your content to spread further across the web!

So what it is RSS? RSS, (Really Simple Syndication) is a format that delivers your latest content. Most news sites and blog systems today offer RSS Feeds that people can subscribe to. An RSS Feed provides the subscriber your content delivered directly to them through a feed reader or aggregator. The reader checks subscribed feeds frequently for new content and downloads any new updates.

This RSS addition now enables anyone to subscribe specifically to your content, and you can subscribe to other Christonium users in turn. Simply go to any desktop and click “Subscribe” next to the little icon besides the list of your most recent items on your home page, or click on the icon in the address field.

RSS is convenient because it allows subscribers to easily stay informed without manually visiting your site. Subscribers will see your item and can then choose whether they wish to visit your site in order to get access to other information, or to comment.

If you wish to gain more traffic to your Christonium site, now your RSS feed enables you to add your site to various blog directories such as http://mybloglog.com and http://bumbzee.com just to mention a few. There are a lot of these directories online that you can take advantage of in order to gain more visibility on the web. Your primary feed URL is: http://christonium.com/YourUserName/rss.

RSS feeds within Christonium are generated only from your public content, private information is never included.

How To Make A Great Website On Christonium

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 09:29:19 MST

OK, so you made an account on Christonium, now what do you do? Most likely, you want to build a site that generates traffic and gets noticed in the search engines, as well as displays your message (whether it's your business, your interests, your writing etc...) clearly. You want a site that looks good and that will bring people back. So how do you create a great site on Christonium?

Step One: The Design Setup
First of all, let's get your site ready to face the world. Using the “Administration” function, you can design your account to reflect yourself, your business, or your interests. You can either choose one of our pre-defined color themes, or you can make your own. Simply go to "Administration" -> "Design" and choose the colors and fonts for the different areas of your account.

Step Two: Your Logo, Homepage Text and Image
Now, let's make your site a little more personable by adding a picture/logo that will represent your account, as well as text and an image for your homepage. Again, go to “Administration” and click “Homepage.” Here you can add a homepage message (Try not to write too long of a message since it will stretch down on your home page), a picture/logo, as well as a homepage picture. Generally, a smaller picture for your homepage looks more proportionate.

Step Three: Create Categories
Now, let's create your first categories that will reflect the content you plan to publish. Simply go to “Administration” and click “Create Top Category.” Be sure to be descriptive when you name your categories. If you're planning to create a lot of categories, it's usually a better idea to create a few general top categories, and then create several descriptive subcategories underneath.

Step Four: Create Content
This would be a good time to add some content under your categories. All content is created within items, and to create an item, simply go to “Administration,” and then click on the category (from your top navigation bar) that you wish to store this item under. Next, click “Create Item.” For more information on how to format your items, please click here.

TIPS! It's very important to create good content if you wish to attract visitors from search engines. The more descriptive your title as well as the first sentence is, the better chance you'll have at achieving great ranking in the search engines. And if you put up good content on a regular basis, you are more likely to get visitors that comes back frequently, the keyword here is consistency!

Step Five: Visit other sites and start networking
Christonium is a social, connected system, so why don't you take a stroll around and see what others are doing. It's easy to visit other sites: you can always start out on the Christonium Home Page. So start networking, make contact with people, write comments, share items and organize them on your site. Once you make contacts, you can utilize your Mail Center to privately communicate.

Step Six: Spread The Word
Now that you have your website on Christonium, why don't you invite some friends and tell people about your site. After all, it's more fun to publish content and work on your site if your friends come along as well...

Christonium Custom Search System

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 10:07:10 MST

Christonium has lately integrated a search system that allows account-holders and visitors to search the web for improved results. We have tried to keep the view consistent, so you can stay within the frame of your account, and search the web conveniently without leaving Christonium.

All search terms are made public within Christonium, although we do not specify which user actually performed the search. To view a desktop's search history, you simply go to that account, click on search and view “General Search History.” There you will see all searches that were made on that desktop, and you can also view your own search history on that desktop. By letting the searches be public, the whole system becomes more transparent and open. It can be quite interesting to see what searches are performed on different desktops, and this system also lets you keep track of your own search record privately.

There are several cool things about this search system. First of all, you can specify where/what you want to search. At the moment we let you search the Internet, mp3 files on the web, the Christonium network, each individual desktop and custom searches specific to each desktop.

Each desktop on Christonium is equipped with its own search area where you can search that account specifically or their custom search, if available. Users can specify a custom search by entering in websites that they trust and that relates to their interests (this is done by clicking search on your desktop, then clicking “Custom Search Settings”). So for example, if your desktop is focused on movies and actors, you might add imdb and yahoo movies to your custom search and name it “Movie Search.” Now, when someone types in a movie title in your search bar on your desktop and specify your custom “Movie Search”, then only those websites that you included are actually searched through. This can be quite useful, as it will be much easier to find trustworthy information relevant to your interests!

To view what websites someone includes within their custom search, you simply go to that desktop, click on their search (located on their home page) and view their Custom Search Settings.

We are quite excited about this search system and hope to improve it further. If you have any questions or comments, please write Christonium and provide some feedback.

Network of Social Desktops Announces Upgrades

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 10:07:04 MST

Christonium.com, A Publishing Network Of User-Generated Social Desktops Announces New Upgrades To Its Content-Based System

Corvallis, Oregon, 8/20/2007 - Christonium.com provides individuals as well as businesses a free platform that combines display, storage and communication. All users on Christonium are publishers through their personal desktop where they can create categories, display and organize any content, share other user’s material and connect and communicate with different people.

Several upgrades have been made to Christonium, since its beta-release 2 months ago. To start with, Christonium announces a new re-design of all desktops that grant users advanced customization options. Christonium also announces the implementation of a “smart” search engine system that allows users to improve their search results as well as set custom search settings. All search terms are made public within Christonium, although not associated to specific users, in order to create a more open, transparent environment.

“The idea behind Christonium is to provide people a truly useful place online that can be utilized to organize and share information whether for the purpose of displaying content publicly, or privately for selected people only.” Co-founder Linn Raia says. “We feel that this interactive environment gives people a lot of freedom to create a very personal space that can really reflect someone and their interests.”

Christonium is powered by a custom-built application that offers several unique features. Users have creative control over category structure and content; all public material on Christonium is floating and can appear on different desktops in widely different contexts, since users can share and distribute content openly; Christonium is equipped with powerful privacy features and also gives users the choice of whether they want their desktops to be viewable to outside visitors or only to other Christonium users.

Through Christonium, users can share experiences with friends and family and create a free customizable web-presence for themselves or their business. With these new upgrades, including a completely customizable search system, Christonium aims to offer a practical, integrated platform that takes many aspects into consideration. “We hope to provide a new alternative online for people who want to publish and organize content, thoroughly customize their web-presence and explore a wide array of subjects.” according to Ms. Raia. “Anyone can create a desktop on Christonium and utilize its features. Now Christonium has even more to offer people who in addition to gathering their interests and making connections, can perform improved targeted searches to more easily find what they are looking for. ”

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Formatting Items

Fri, 17 Aug 2007 02:44:18 MST

The addition of the item-formatting-bar does greatly increase the user’s creative control on Christonium. Any item can now be formatted extensively to fit each desktop’s objective, as it is possible to create tables, format text, include links and embed linked photos directly within the item, among other things.

Let’s go over what the new bar looks like, and what the most important functions are that will enhance your item’s function and appearance.

On the map of the bar I have highlighted some of the more useful features that people might have some trouble finding. I haven’t bothered to highlight more common formatting options such as bold, italic and underline for example, since most people will probably have no problem finding those.

Here are the icons that are highlighted on the image:

Inserting Tables
Bullet Formatting
Linking
Linking Images
Inserting Custom Characters
Text color

Tables
To insert a table here works similarly to a word document: click this icon, and choose the number of rows and columns for your table. Once you have inserted your table, you can edit it by putting your mouse over it, right-click and choose one of the options. “Table Properties” for example allows you to customize your table; choose a background color or background image, align it etc… Once the table is created, you can choose what you want to place within your table: to organize text and images within a table greatly improves the design of your item.

Bullet formatting
To organize lists of texts, or highlights in a bullet point format creates a more readable experience. Simply highlight the area you wish to bullet point and then click one of these buttons depending whether you want a chronological format (1,2,3) or a bullet point format.

Linking
Previously it was not possible to link outside websites within Christonium, but with this feature it is now possible. Simply highlight text you wish to link, click on this linking icon and insert your link in the pop-up window. The pop-up window also allows you to add a title to your link, as well as specify whether you want the link to open up in a new window or just replace the current view (it’s nice to set your links to open up in a new window to keep a consistent view and eliminate confusion.)

Linking opens up many new possibilities within Christonium. In addition to linking to outside websites, you can now also link your various items together. For example, you can make lists of different items that are related and link back to them, all within the same item. To illustrate this, let’s say you have several baking recipes on your desktop. Now you can create an item titled “My Favorite Baking Recipes,” then link all your bread recipes there and write a small review about each of recipe. This method allows you to increase and connect your content in a new way where you can associate items previously separated.

Linking images
Now you can create items and utilize images from other websites on the web. In addition to uploading images, you can go to a website, find an image you’d like to use, put your mouse over it, right click and select “Copy Image Location.” Now you go back to creating your item, click on this icon to link images, and insert the link in the pop-up window. The pop-up window also allows you to add a title as well as a description of your image. You can also specify the dimensions of your image, in case you want to edit its size as well as align it, set a border etc… You can add as many linked images within your items as you wish and format them, place them in tables and make them look really good!

Inserting Custom Characters
This little icon allows you to choose between an array of custom characters. No matter whether you need to find an £ or an ♥, you’ll probably find it here.

Text Color
If you wish to highlight certain parts of your item by giving it a different font color, then here is where you do that. Simply highlight the text you wish to edit, then click on this icon and select a color. Next to this icon you can set an image background color to your text if you want to get really fanciful!

Administration Changes

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:50:22 MST

Some of the more substantial changes Christonium has gone through lately are layout based and administrative. We have moved the center for creating and managing categories and items, as well as the mail center. Previously the admin center called “Create Categories and Items” was located at the top right corner of your desktop above the mail center. The idea was that you could manage your desktop, look at your mail and see new items all at the same time. But after a while, we realized that the flow could be improved and that both the admin center as well as the mail center were somewhat cramped and difficult to work with. So, now we have separated them both out, and combined a lot of administrative functions such as design and managing your account under an admin area. This can be accessed from your top navigation bar where you’ll see a white Administration “button.” Your mail center on the other hand can be accessed from the very top bar next to “My Home.”

The flow of administrative functions such as creating and managing categories and items remain largely untouched. When you access the administration bar, there are two areas: one to the left and one to the right, that displays the management of categories and item.
The left box controls category functions and the right box controls item functions. Depending on where you are on your desktop and what categories and items you are accessing, the bar responds and presents you with different options at different times.

The basic idea is still that you click on a category in your top navigation bar that you wish to work with, then access “Administration,” specify the task you wish to perform, such as add a subcategory, move, edit or add an item… then follow instructions and complete the task. So in other words, if you wish to move an item under a different category, you first access the item, then click “Administration” and specify “Move”, then find the category you wish to move the item under, and then confirm again in the administration bar. It’s almost like an on or off button. If the administration is “on,” and if you move within your categories, you can perform various tasks. Although if you click on your Home, or site map, the administration basically goes “off.”

The main point to think about, is that you click “Administration” each time you wish to do something administrative. Then you interact with your categories and items, and then confirm back with you administrative box. Back and forth, back and forth, if you get lost, simply click “Administration” and start back over. Even though it might sound slightly confusing, it’s quite simple once you get the hang of it.

Design Upgrade

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 09:48:03 MST

By now, some of you have familiarized yourself a little with Christonium’s new changes and we are excited to present this make-over after some intense developing time. Various parts now work a little different, we have added some features and the design has changed overall.

As you might have noticed, each desktop has gotten a face-lift! We have moved some things around, created some different shades of color at each desktop, put more focus on the item and doodled around a little in general. The home page of Christonium has also received a new look, as well as the very top bar that appears everywhere.

Design Themes

To make it slightly easier to design your desktop, in case you don’t want to spend time selecting all the colors yourself, you can now start out with one of our pre-set color themes. We have removed all the little design buttons on your account, now you can edit the design of your desktop by clicking “Administration” that appears in your top navigation bar and selecting “Design”. To select a theme, you simply go to the underlying category: “Default Themes.” Feel free to play around and try some different looks – just beware that your current design will be overwritten.

Social Desktop

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:07:39 MST

Social Desktop

We refer to Christonium as an online social desktop because of your ability to organize, store and display collections of information, photos, videos and documents in an interactive environment. Christonium is not simply a social network, nor a file storing place, nor a communication system, nor an organization program – it encapsulates all these features into one interface: the social desktop.

A regular desktop

The concept of the social desktop is not a direct translation of a regular desktop that brings a blank screen to mind with different icons. No, we like to think of a desktop as someone’s individual collection of information that represents their interests and focus. Your regular desktop allows you to store a variety of material, although nobody actually gets to see what you organize and keep. Christonium on the other hand, allows anyone to make any creative category structure under which they can easily catalog, display and store their own content as well as other user’s material, through Christonium’s unique sharing feature. This makes it possible for people to really explore different topics and make interesting collections of ideas while letting others take part in those interests.

The Social Aspect

The desktop is social for a number of reasons since the system is completely connected; you can make contacts, write people through the internal email system, write comments etc, although foremost it’s social because your content is sharable and no longer restricted to your own use and display. If you create an item under a public category then it’s a floating piece of material, anybody can share it, organize it and use it inside Christonium. Your collection of text, images and documents is not limited to a physical desktop, you have opened it up and let others spread your unique content further. Through this system, you can share your desktop with others and let them use your material on their own desktop.

Application

No matter whether you are here to just observe others desktops, to publish your thoughts and interests, to bring a group together, to advertise your business, or to simply network and connect with others, you have the freedom to create a free online social desktop focused on whatever you want. Utilize it as your own, easy-to-create and easy-to-update website, as a meeting place for friends and family, or as a destination to find new and interesting content that you can actually take part of.

Communication

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:05:54 MST

Communication

One of the more important aspects of the social desktop is the communication between users. Once you’re logged in, you can write comments on items or your can utilize Christonium’s internal email system to privately write other users. The Mail Center is integrated into the program and provides a good alternative to outside email systems on the web.

Here are a few examples that differentiates Christonium’s Mail Center from traditional email systems:

- Since Christonium is a contained environment and the mail system is internal, there is no outside spam to infiltrate your account.

- You can choose whom you want to communicate with, since in order to write other users you need to approve that account as your contact.

- You have full control over the messages you send. If you wish to delete a message you sent to one of your contacts, that message will also be removed from the inbox of that user. This means that each user’s mail belong to them and they can determine if they wish to keep or delete their sent mail, so if messages in your inbox are removed then the sender determined they wanted to delete that message.

- Each user is represented by a desktop. Instead of sending mail to an “empty” email address, you can actually visit that person’s account and see their desktop and all it entails.

- The message system works in real time. When you send traditional emails online, each message goes through various servers and is only sent successfully if the receiving email address functions properly. Often messages are delayed and do not reach their destination immediately. Since the Mail Center in Christonium works internally there are no such obstacles and all messages reach the receiver immediately.

- Christonium does not let any search engine source or cache any messages. Many email systems online cache and source your email in order to provide more targeted advertising that reflects the content of your emails. Often if you delete one of your emails, it’s not actually deleted from the email-provider’s servers until long after, if ever. Since, at Christonium we do not let any search engine go through your mail, and we actually remove deleted messages immediately from our servers, you can always delete your mail at any time without worrying that your private mail is still cached out on the web somewhere.

About

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:04:23 MST

About Christonium

Welcome to Christonium – a unique community of social desktops where people can publish and organize content and connect with others. Christonium.com provides individuals as well as businesses a free platform that combines display, storage and communication. Create your own desktop on Christonium to display and catalogue content, customize the design, set precise privacy settings and communicate with other users, or simply browse existing desktops and discover interesting collections of content. Christonium allows users to fully explore various subjects and organize your own material as well as other user’s within your personal desktop.

Content is distributed easily throughout the Christonium network. Your items have the possibility to reach a lot of viewers, or you can select to make your categories open only to selected contacts. All public items on Christonium are floating and can appear on different desktops in widely different contexts, because of Christonium’s advanced sharing feature. This makes it possible for users to bookmark and collect interesting items in a real, practical way.

Each user on Christonium has their own desktop where they can showcase, catalogue and display their thoughts, images, videos and documents. Each desktop can be highly customized so that users can really create a space of their own whether for the purpose of publishing material, storing private content, creating a web-presence, or connecting with different people.

Christonium also provides each desktop with a customized search system that can be utilized to achieve greater results and set custom search settings. All search terms are made public within Christonium, although not associated to specific users.

Purpose

Tue, 14 Aug 2007 07:02:29 MST

Purpose

To provide a unique structure which allows the organization, creation, collaboration and sharing of intellectual concepts through a network of social connection and interaction. Catalogue books, recipes, blogs, videos, photos or anything else you can think of, and then share it with the world.

Goals

To provide a useful environment which can allow any entity, be it company, individual or association to create content whether in the form of personal statements, political action, commercial interests or religious views, with the expectation of privacy, respect and tolerance of humanities' many differing opinions and objectives.

Account Types

Commercial accounts should be created if the account in any way represents a group, company, political organization, association, government or if an individual wishes to engage in any activity related to commerce.
To simply comment on, or promote a product or industry or idea you do not directly relate to does not constitute the need for a commercial account.

Advertising

Because many websites use ads, consumers should be made aware that if an advertisement is being viewed online, whether ads on christonium.com or elsewhere, then their personal information may be at risk. Marketers utilize information gathered through persistent cookies to track purchase histories, location and online behavior. Whether it is your computer type, browsing history or IP address, these data are all potentially exposed through online advertising.
We believe that an account holder on christonium.com should be able to choose what they are exposed to, whether it is the ads themselves or the knowledge that even though christonium.com does not utilize persistent cookies to track their movement, or collect potentially personal information, any advertising we place in the browser, from a third party may expose you to methods and data collection christonium.com does not subscribe to.

Attention!!! Christonium System Updates

Sun, 12 Aug 2007 11:55:53 MST

Hello all users of Christonium!

Today we are introducing some new changes and upgrades to Christonium. We will be posting more information on the Christonium account about each upgrade, but here is a quick list of improvements that have affected the look and function of your desktop.

Christonium’s design has changed in numerous places. You will notice your personal desktop looks slightly different as well as other parts of the system.
We have repositioned the mail center and the administrative center on each desktop. The mail center is accessible from the very top navigation and the administrative center is located as one of your top categories. The way the administrative system (creating categories and items for example) works has changed, hopefully it will make it easier to manage your account.
We have expanded the item’s formatting potential. Now you can format your text, create tables and add links among other things in each item.
We have added a public tracking feature on each desktop that gives visitors the possibility to follow a desktop’s traffic history. Now you can visit any desktop on Christonium and see detailed visitor history in regard to which categories and items that are being looked at each day, although visitors are not associated to specific Christonium users.
We have implemented a search system inside Christonium. Now you can utilize Christonium to search the web as well as the system. We are also offering users the feature of creating a public custom search engine that searches your favorite sites for improved results!
Christonium accounts are currently set to Open for Public Browsing, but all private items and categories are still private. If you wish to set your desktop closed for public browsing you can edit your account at any time.

We hope you will enjoy these improvements. You might experience some issues if you are using Internet Explorer, which we are working on. Here is a link to a more secure web browser: FireFox

Please feel free to write us if you have any comments, thoughts or questions.

Thanks,
Christonium

Balancing Design and Usability

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 03:50:06 MST

At Christonium we are trying to give users as much control over their experience as possible and that extends into the design of their account. We offer users the possibility to extensively control various elements of their desktop and the design down to the background color, the font, the font color, the font size etc… This allows anyone to really play around with colors and themes and create something truly unique. Other networks out there offer more limited control over the appearance of users accounts, whether they give a choice of various design templates, or a choice of base colors. It makes sense why some networks choose to only offer users a selective design choice, then they ensure that all accounts will look put together and follow their standards. It’s a fine line to draw – how much control does the website need to retain in order to ensure some level of consistency? You wish to give users as much flexibility as possible while you also want to make sure that all accounts are actually readable and presentable. Does a perfect design exist? For a program to be usable and clear, its design needs to relatively clean and not too flashy, while the actual layout and structure needs to be clear and focus on certain areas of importance. Some networks take the other route, by offering complete control over design where users can upload their own css files and actually control the code design of their “sites.” We think that kind of control can bring more confusion then anything and most people will find it too complicated to implement their own code. One of the key factors that we want to ensure is to make it easy for users to design their accounts without any programming or design skills, and still make it look great and unique. Lately we have been working on various design elements of the program that we hope to implement in the near future. Our fundamental philosophy remains, which is to provide users a lot of control over their experience and design. We want to enable anybody to simply implement a design that fits them and their interests, their business or their life.