I’ve been thinking about corporate responsibility for a few weeks now. It’s been a tangent in some debates/arguments I’ve been having with someone I work with. I’m not talking about actual charity work or donations, I’m talking about the responsibility a company has in it’s area to improve itself *and* it’s area.
So the Internet. Mozilla actively make the Internet a better place and they do it for free. Firefox & Thunderbird are the two big ones. Both are ongoing attempts to make a safer, securer easier to use Internet. I like Mozilla, I like their products and I use them. I respect the company, what they are doing and what they are trying to do. Tomorrow,if Mozilla decided to charge for the three main apps I use (Firefox, Tbird and Sunbird), I would happily take out my credit card and give them some money. Note I have already donated.
Google is the other big one. The major difference being they are a for-profit company. It’s not stopped them from releasing a large number of products and services for free. There isn’t anything quite life changing there yet…but it’s a buildup. I don’t know to what. I have my suspicions but I’ve changed the a couple of times so far. I just don’t know. However, I have faith and indeed some loyalty to the brand, I have quite a lot of both. So I’m prepared to give them my money when they come asking for it. I do not block anything from Google using the excellent GreaseMonkey tool for Firefox. I don’t want to, I actually have time and respect for the company.
Skype is getting there. It’s small and smart and way overdue. It’s cruising a wave of nice publicity and it has a whole lot of potential but I don’t think VOIP is anything like it’s been talked up.
Unfortunately, nothing much excites me on the Internet these days. I really wish it did. I think that pretty soon, somehow we are going to see a combination of the Google and Mozilla, even if it’s just a custom Google Firefox. That’s going to be huge.
I do really wish that there was something to do it, but there just isn’t and to be, I’m not sure if it’s the right word but to be, expected to be excited by some of what I see on the Internet is to be honest, a joke. Please do give me something to be excited about. I’m an Internet user, I use it daily for work and for pleasure, give me something to make these easier or less stressful or more fun, give me something useful. Don’t give me what could perhaps be a wonderful concept and then destroy it like so many good things on the net have been killed. Take the concept and quite simply, Do Not Fuck It Up.
It’s not that hard.
And ya know, if you happen to be a for-profit company right now, maybe spending some time building a brand would help leverge some profit it from it a year down the line.
I’m somewhat annoyed.