The world revolves faster than you think

A couple of years ago, I was passed a copy of the cluetrain manifesto from a friend raving this will change how you think about your information on the web. I hate bold assertions like this as it sets up the subject matter to be a literary creation of Orwellian standard. Fortunately on this occasion he was vindicated.

For me, the core message of the book read something like

You, your opinions, and those of your peers matter. The speed and visibility of the web, now mean that this really matters to business. Most businesses don't realise this.

The Lefty, tree-swinging liberal in me took great delight in this message. For a long time, I have felt that advertising and media in general, was due a good shakeup. Media IMHO should be democratic, available, and free. Attempts to constrain it, create distortions (enter Daily Mail). I'm not against media organisations either. I believe they have their place in a future of fast comms. I digress however; the purpose of this post was this:

Amazon, forward thinkers, arguably pioneers of the first (commercially successful) cloud computing business, the vanguard of book distribution; an establishment shaker. Clearly a company I have viewed in a positive light, have now, through seemingly ignorant policy making and BBCesque inaction found themselves at the centre of censorship scandal. It amazes me that such a company can fall foul of the very essence of their success.

As @girlonetrack succinctly puts it

the lessons to be learned here are simple: don't piss off the web, or your reputation will be seriously damaged.