I posted a blog entry last week about the whole Facebook Terms of Use thing that everyone was up in arms about and subsequently was pulled by Facebook after a public outcry. Here’s that blog post if you are interested.
Well, apparently the upper level management at Facebook has enlisted a PR firm or something because I see a little bit of genius (not that they Facebook folks aren’t genius already) in this announcement that was posted inside of Facebook today:
Today we announced new opportunities for users to play a meaningful role in determining the policies governing our site. We released the first proposals subject to these procedures – The Facebook Principles, a set of values that will guide the development of the service, and Statement of Rights and Responsibilities that governs Facebook’s operations. Users will have the opportunity to review, comment and vote on these documents over the coming weeks and, if they are approved, other future policy changes. We’ve posted the documents in separate groups and invite you to offer comments and suggestions. For more information and links to the two groups, check out the Facebook Blog.
This opens up the doors for dialogue with their users, which is a brilliant idea in my opinion. It gives them a stake in the negotiations, folks don’t like to have things handed to them, that’s the bottom line. It also furthers Facebook as a company I believe. Granted, it’s their TOS, but it appears that it is going to be shaped by their users in some small fashion.
I applaud Facebook for taking this approach. Again, I don’t think that they came up with this on their own, I am betting some Washington PR firm is already on their payroll by now…
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