What even is a website? We all work on them. Visit them. Use them. Load them. Build them. Code them. Design and redesign them. Launch and relaunch them. But what are they? This is a question I explored in my keynote at the Des Moines edition of World Information Architecture Day 2018. I answered with these seven metaphors: 1. A website is an ecosystem 2. A website is an automaton 3. A website is a conversation 4. A website is a mirror 5. A website is a barrier 6. A website is an undertaking 7. A website is a responsibility