Posted May 16th, 2008, in: Data Portability (DataPortability)| Evil Robots| Social Software and The Social Graph| Technology

A “Letter to Comcast,” but also, and more importantly, a letter to people who read my blog.

Source: TechCrunch

Plaxo has some really compelling address book synchronization offerings.  Really, for me, Plaxo was sort of a mini dream come true as far as my personal data is concerned.

But I thought about it and I just don’t trust Comcast.  They are limiting my access to competing media distribution channels, and they have a reputation for fighting against consumer interests, and perhaps even human interests, if you’re willing to step back and see the implications of the non-neutrality they are in favor of with regard to the Internet.

Comcast, you have an uphill PR battle in front of you.  People like me will continue to think of your brand as representing pure evil until you start to prove us wrong.  I don’t know how you’re going to do this, but making acquisitions that appear to consumers to be privacy concerns, given your already soiled trust with the public, isn’t the best thing to do right now.  I’m all for socially curated media, and I’m glad if Comcast is working in that direction, but frankly, you’re in a position where you could really start to seem like the orwellian “Big Brother” Nightmare everyone is terrified of.  Perhaps you should point all your guns at bringing IPTV into reality, or better yet, let’s see the real convergence between TV and Web that we all know is coming one way or another.  Do that first.  And why don’t you also try getting all the dark spots in the Net lit up! The South, you know? Let’s get those people online and you can sell them programming later.  I know there’s not really a bandwidth problem, not when there’s 100 channels of “HD” programming streaming into all your cable customers homes 24/7. C’mon. Quit lying and cheating and stealing and start making some progress toward our common good.  Or on the other hand, why don’t you announce the acquisition of an arms manufacturer.  That’d help your company’s image.

I’ve deleted Plaxo’s software from my machine, and I closed my Plaxo account.  Goodbye Plaxo.  Really, an open-source version of the same type of thing would be better anyhow.