NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Forbes: "Amazon Needs a Public Editor"
Forbes: "Amazon Needs a Public Editor"
http://j.mp/Sj4dt2 (Forbes)
"This just came to my attention: a pretty astounding case of Orwellian
autocracy from Amazon. If the details are not being grossly
misrepresented here, Amazon (UK) appears to be basically subjecting a
Kindle customer named Linn to a Kafkaesque Trial.
...
Where should Amazon start? For starters, it could do worse than
appointing something like the equivalent of the New York Times' public
editor. More than once, this role has led to productive criticism of
the Times' reporting and opinions. You could argue that Amazon is not
a newspaper, but I believe it is very much like a newspaper in being a
de facto public institution that plays a role beyond its nominal
commercial role. Because governments still haven't figured out the
Web, it remains a largely ungoverned space, where corporations need to
be aware that they have a civic role. A public editor who could
escalate cases like this (and presumably, withstand Bezos' yelling and
stare him down) is increasingly becoming essential for Amazon. If
not, it's going to be Dell all over again, and that will be just sad."
- - -
The "Public Editor" role -- a term largely from publishing -- in
practice is often much the same as an "ombudsman" or "executive
offices" point person/team in other kinds of firms. A common purpose
is to provide a "triaged" interface for escalation of appropriate
unusual individual cases to specific operational teams, managers,
corporate executives, and the like, outside existing "media relations"
channels (which aren't designed or suitable for dealing appropriately
with individual customer/user problem cases).
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com): http://www.vortex.com/lauren
Co-Founder: People For Internet Responsibility: http://www.pfir.org/pfir-info
Founder:
- Network Neutrality Squad: http://www.nnsquad.org
- PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com/privacy-info
- Data Wisdom Explorers League: http://www.dwel.org
- Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance: http://www.gctip.org
Member: ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Google+: http://vortex.com/g+lauren / Twitter: http://vortex.com/t-lauren
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 / Skype: vortex.com
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