The @ and = symbols are two of four context symbols, we’ll briefly go
over the other two at the end of this entry. What they symbolize is a
organization( or business) entity and personal entity respectively.
Thus if I have an =nika on my name tag at a conference, everyone can
instantly know that it’s me, nika the person that I’m representing.
Just as if having @ouno*nika on my name tag, is akin to giving out my
business phone number.
The reason the main distinction was made was for contract and other
legal purposes that may or may not currently exist. Because a business
entity may be subject to different rules and regulations that a person
in similar or the same circumstances. So having the distinction will
be important. However things don’t always seem so so clear cut.
For example could Google or Yahoo! ever own =google or =yahoo? They
aren’t people right. And could nika ever own an @nika. Also what
about .com, ,biz, .gov, .jp and etc. These questions usually throw
confusion in the mix, so here’s the way to think about the @ and =
signs. They symbolize “representing” a business interest or
“representing” a personal interest respectively. Usually the owner and
the thing it’s representing is one in the same. Which is to say that
when I personally buy =nika it is representing me.
However if Google or Yahoo! were to buy an =google or =yahoo, it would
a business entity representing a personal interest. Which is basically
what Google or Yahoo! do when they offer a service to the public, say
email, then throw their (collective business) hands in the air and
say, we have nothing to do with what happens on this service. It’s a,
“Yes, we as a *business* provide this service, but our interests are
not inherently aligned with the *person* using this service. So don’t
sue us, sue the person using us if you’re gonna sue” statement.
Another way to look at is as if for example @google represents to
corporate credit card. When it’s time to use the corporate card to pay
for dinner, the business interests were represented during dinner, and
not personal ones.
@google*brian is a guy who works at google
=google*brian is a guy who uses google services
So that covers it. @ is for organization entities and related
interests and = is for personal entities and related interests. The
other two symbols are the $ Which can be system (like government) and
the + symbol which is public and used like a publicly agreed upon tag.
When used properly together and with standard delimiters like the (*
symbol) an i-name can present an much better representation of of what
it’s identifying than some current methods (say, telephone numbers!).