science

Web property

Web property is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Web property rather than just read about it. In short: A web property is a point of presence (e.g. a website, social media account, blog, etc.) on the web that is an asset of an entity (e.g. an individual or corporation) used for the purpose of representing a brand, person or other identity. The property can be considered a communication channel for the entity whose identity is associated with it.

Key takeaways

Web property belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Web property to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Web property from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

A web property is a point of presence (e.g. a website, social media account, blog, etc.) on the web that is an asset of an entity (e.g. an individual or corporation) used for the purpose of representing a brand, person or other identity. The property can be considered a communication channel for the entity whose identity is associated with it. Points of presence on the web which contain content about an entity may not be property that can be owned by that entity (e.g. restaurant review pages on sites such as Yelp). Web property is considered intangible property and is analogous to real property in that it has ownership which can be recorded and transferred though ascertaining ownership is not always a simple or easy matter to resolve. The issue of ownership can be particularly challenging in relation to the employer-employee situation. Two current legal cases are likely to set precedent in this area, § PhoneDog v. Kravitz and § Eagle v. Morgan.

Websites as web property The ownership of a website usually can be ascertained via the registration of the domain name via the Domain Name System. The Registrant record of the DNS identifies the individual or company who has the right to use, sell or destroy a domain name. Ownership of the domain name does not guarantee ownership of the website to which it points or the content contained there.

Social media as web property Social media presents a different challenge regarding web property ownership. For individuals, the web point of presence is owned by the individual who created it (e.g. the owner of a Facebook Account could be considered the owner of the Facebook page which he or she created). However, if the point of presence was created for a business (e.g. a corporation), then the law is not entirely settled though two cases are currently working through the courts:

PhoneDog v. Kravitz

PhoneDog v. Kravitz is a "lawsuit involving a web-based company and a former employee [which] has put a spotlight on the ownership and value of a Twitter account begun by an employee under the auspices of his employment, but continued by him, under a different name, after he terminated his employment." On 3 December 2012, "Kravitz announced that he and PhoneDog have reached an agreement under which Kravitz will get to keep his Twitter account -- and his followers."

Eagle v. Morgan In 2010 Sawbeh Information Services Company (SISCOM) purchased Edcomm from Linda Eagle and her partners. In 2008, Eagle had created a LinkedIn account that she used for business and personal purposes, and utilized the services of another employee, Elizabeth Sweeney, to maintain the account. In 2011, Eagle and her partners were discharged but SISCOM's new executive team acquired the password to Eagle's account and took control of it, locking out Eagle. Eagle is now suing to regain control of her account. SISCOM's claimed that Eagle's LinkedIn connections belonged to the company, that Eagle stole the connections and subsequently reaped the benefit of the time and efforts it put into maintaining her LinkedIn account.

Unresolved questions

There are a couple questions left unresolved with respect to the ownership of web points of presence:

Can the content of a point of presence be owned separately from the presence itself? Can the community attached to a point of presence (e.g. friends, fans, and followers) be owned separately from the presence itself?

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Web property

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Web property claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Web property before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Web property ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Web property

In research: Web property appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Web property in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Web property is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Property law, World Wide Web, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Web property outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Web property in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Web property means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Web property out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Web property in simple terms?

Why does Web property matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Web property?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Web property.