Posted on December 28, 2008
Room 214 and Twitter ID Rights
BY JAMES CLARK
"A person can achieve everything by being simple and humble" - Rig Veda
I have always found that being humble in mind and spirit has worked well for me in life.
As I was gong through my normal pre-bedtime routines of checking emails, Twitter and Facebook, I was alerted of a video post by Kevin Rose, yes that Kevin Rose, on Seesmic about Twitter ID naming rights that was referencing a situation with Room 214 and Colin Davitt, the owner of the Twitter ID @room214. If you click on the Seesmic above link you will see Kevin's reasoning and position on the subject of Twitter IDs.
But first things first - Humility:
To Colin Davitt, my most sincere apologies in regards to the Twitter ID issue. You can rest assured that we are not interested in your Twitter ID, and wish you only the best in using it.
And to keep it - Simple:
As a company, and I can say this as one of its co-founders, we have never sought legal counsel or even discussed attempting to obtain the Twitter ID right to twitter.com/room214. Yes, about a year ago we did seek to secure the name, but it was one of those - "Awe shucks, someone already has it moments" and we moved on. Colin got there first - and that is that.
There were mistakes made in communications from one of our employees in their own conversations with Colin. We are all human, and from my discussions with this individual I can honestly say that there was never any bad intent in the situation, and now only heartfelt regret.
Twitter ID Rights
So, Kevin brings up a great conversation about naming rights in social media - one that we will most certainly take an interest in following.
Truth be told, I look forward to participating in the process and hope this situation only helps all of us in the long run.
Sincerely,
James Clark
co-founder, Room 214
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Thanks Rick.
There is no other way I would have approached it.
Getting to speak with Colin today to let him know my sincere and heartfelt apology was what mattered most to me. If I'm good with Colin (and it's all good now) in this situation, hopefully it will all be good in the end.
It's been an interesting evening/morning/afternoon to say the least.
Yes, it's my hope that everyone involved gets something positive out of this.
I'm amazed that you've been so responsive. There's no better way to handle something like this.
Thanks Mike and Ef. The great people that work at Room 214 deserve only the best in my response to this situation.
Kudos to room 214 for handling this quickly, responsibly, and professionally. When I saw the video I was irked... now I feel better. :)
Looks like a win for you, no harm seems to have been done - hopefully you guys get some links out of this.
Thanks for doing the right thing here James, about the best possible response you could have given right there.
Graciously done! Respect! :)
Excellent. Props to you guys for handling this with humility and grace. Big win on you and yours.
Thanks for this article and video about twitter naming. This is very weird, I just realized that someone has opened a twitter account using my site's name. But I didn't have it trademarked, so I guess I will need another name.
Hi James!
Glad to see that this issue has been settled amicably before it escalated any further. Kudos for doing the right thing.
Certainly there are things we can ALL learn from this issue.
Have A Safe & Prosperous 2009!
Rick Wilson aka CorpRebel