Now I’m not against companies diving into social media and I’m not necessarily against businesses taking part in advocating for change, but when I got back from my camping trip this weekend to discover that some sort of video marketing arm of a web development company called OilChange.com had “acquired” RuinedIphone.com, an online petition for Rogers Communications to listen to the demands of Canadian customers — I was a little stunned.
How is it that an online petition that is founded on bringing together the voices of Canadians, be “acquired” by a business?
I realize that this may have been a good opportunity for the folks at OilChange.com to bring awareness to their services and many people may not care or mind, but I think it is somewhat in poor taste for a company to suddenly drop in and obtain the rights to the website with no transparency and very little explanation on how they are accountable to the people who have signed and may be signing the online petition.
I signed the petition only because I support the cause, not for additional purposes. The fact that the website has supposedly exchanged hands (I don’t really know what has happened…) causes me to lose faith in what I felt could have been a powerful statement on RuinedIphone.com.
I’m sure not everyone feels the same way I do so I’d be interested in hearing how others feel about this step.
Loading ...Update (July 7th 2008): The folks at RuinedIphone.com and OilChange.com have posted a FAQ and news updates on why and how they are taking over. Kudos and thanks for this update. We all appreciate it!
