The Paris Hilton of the Internet

During today's RiOS Institute's and UC Berkeley's School of Information lecture series New Wave Social ICT Impact, this is how Craig Newmark, of Craigslist fame, described himself.

He was talking to ischool student and faculty about his work at Craiglist, where he is taking care of customer service, a job that entails taking care of spammers and haters. One of his main takeaway from his 12 years with Craigslist is that humans are overwhelmingly trustworthy and good. this is reflected in the profoundly ethical moral compass by which Craigslist is run:
- treat people how you want to be treated yourself
- live and let live
- give others a break every now and then

Craig considers himself an 'accidental social entrepreneur,' but he does want to change the world, mainly by supporting and giving exposure to people and organizations who are working on worthwhile causes. One area in which he is particularly interested is the Middle East, where he is supporting microfinance organizations such as CHF International (he is a bog fan of microfinance in general), wants to finance internet cafes in the West Bank and also sponsored a latrine in the Hisham ben Adil Malek boys' high school in Jericho (you can see pictures of it on the September 10th posting on his personal blog cnewmark.

High-tech meets low-tech. He does believe in the special power of ICT to bring about social change, through providing Americans with information about other parts of the world, finding out about needs of others and possibilities to do something about it. The internet is getting people together to help, especially with resources and also allows for international cross-pollination of knowledge.

One of his new projects is to support people fighting the 'professional disinformation workers' and their products.

So, while Craigslist's credo seems to come down to Simplicity, Sincerity and Speed, Craig believes in the global power of nerds to change the world. As a self-identified nerd, he 'blindly plunges into things because he doesn't know any better and it seems to be working.' Keep on plunging, Craig.

You can listen to a podcast of the talk thanks to ischool volunteers Kevin and Alana.