As a rule, I try not to say unkind or ungenerous things about people I respect online, mostly because, well, we’re all online, right? And this stuff tends to have a way of coming back to bite you in the bippy.

Hopefully this won’t be taken as unkind or ungenerous, but simply as constructive criticism.

This week, Seth Godin, a marketing thought leader and someone who I have a lot of respect for, launched a new project titled Brands in Public. This project aims to pull in buzz on the Web that centers around big brands – Ford, Sears, Nike, etc. and put it all in one place for that brand to monitor quickly and easily.

Sounds good, until you climb under the hood. All this content that is gathered, all the information, can only be altered or edited or collated or whatever if you pay Seth et al….wait for it……$400 a month.

Therein lies the rub. Here are the two biggest reasons why I believe that this is a terribly misguided idea:

• The last time I checked, the Web and (most) information on it were free. Charging people to access this information, even if it’s all nicely arranged in one place and the people paying for it can easily afford it, is not right.
• Taking advantage of anyone’s lack of knowledge, whether they are a big company or just one person, is wrong. In my life online, I’ve had the privilege of talking to quite a few “big brands”. With very, VERY few exceptions, these folks don’t have the slightest idea how to deal with new media technology. They don’t know what Twitter is, they don’t know what RSS is, they don’t read blogs, they don’t use Google Alerts. Web and new media stuff scares them to death, because it’s A)new and B)on the Internet, which is inherently mysterious. So when someone like Seth, a well-respected thought leader who has published a few thoughtfully executed marketing manifestos, comes to these big brands and tells them that they don’t have to worry about all that newfangled Internet stuff because he’ll do it for them, his way, with their money….well, it just doesn’t quite add up, does it.

I don’t want to belabor my points, but here’s the bottom line. These companies know that they’ve got to get savvy with new media, Web conversations, buzz, all that jazz, and they know (for the most part) that they’re pretty far behind. Brands in Public is ostensibly a tool that targets that gap. However, when you hoard freely obtained information and charge a whopping fee to access it – and make them think that if they don’t, they are going to go down in flames – that’s just not right.

More on Brands in Public

• Seth Godin Tries Out Brandjacking
• Squidoo Aims To Make Brands Pay For Dedicated Web Dashboards
• Give Squidoo $400 a month. Or your brand gets it.