Two sides of the Web 2.0 coin (or shareholders versus stakeholders)

Here's a story about how a private monopoly can outlast governments and consumers with ease, whilst this story tells how a competitor aims to engineer Internet access in Africa.

Each story is significant in its own way. The first company, Microsoft, was born out of a business model where the real customer was the shareholder and the external customer an afterthought. The second company, Google, was born out of a business model where satisfying stakeholders - that is to say, all parties involved in the success of the business; from ideas creation to end-user, from producer to consumer - was key to satisfying the shareholder. Google's goal is to undo a private monopoly - and, in the process, perhaps create another. Microsoft's goal has never been any other than successfully preserve that monopoly at all costs.

Oh. No doubt about it. The shareholder's still there, overbearing and overarching. But these two stories define, without a doubt, a generational difference of significance.

How significant, and how different, only time will tell.