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Craig and his List
Schlemphfer writes "The San Francisco Chronicle has published a long interview with Craig Newmark of Craigslist. The interview covers topics like running a business with a moral compass, hiring people while finding leadership to grow a website, and last week's eBay purchase of 25% of the site."
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-- "I'm not a religious man, but if you're up there, save me Superman..."
Craig uses only Linux PCs and a linux PDA.
Anyways, back to the subject at hand: Craig said they didn't really promote Craigslist... yet now it's so huge they even charge for job listings in certain cities(that's how they get all their money). Wow. This is really showing how the web can really be a great place for community building an etc.
The interview's long but it's well worth reading. Craig touches up on how he will work with the eBay fraud people to find new ways to combat fraud now that Craigslist is getting bigger (and hopefully better).
Q: A former employee of Craigslist sold 25 percent of the firm to EBay Friday. Did you try to stop this?
A: We tried to channel it toward a partner we could live with, with a similar moral compass. It was not my intention to have any of this happen, but we're happy with the results.
In other words:
A: Yeah, it really blows. Because we still have business morals, where eBay don't have much. We'd have prefered a partner with some morals left, but now they're stuck their foot in our doors, hey, I guess eBay is really really great after all...
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Ridiculous. The only way for an organization of individuals to have any sort of lasting "moral compass" is to dilute power among it members. There is a practical method for this, it's called democracy. In business circles it's called a cooperative.
Anything else will fall apart or centralize to the point of paralysis.
A heirarchical organization has only the "moral compass" of the fellow at the very top - not much of a moral compass.
It is quite amusing (well disheartening actually) these days to watch all these "internet activists" attempt to recreate (in complete ignorance) what syndicalists were doing over a century ago.
This article restored my faith in the "google" philosophy, Craig is doing the right thing and not selling out. Until reading this in-depth interview I interpreted the story earlier this week implying Craig had sold out. On the contrary, it turns out a former employee with 25% (closely held) shares sold them independently which is a whole lot different from Craigslist negotiating a sale to eBay.
/. readers read the entire interview (warning, its long, but hey, its Sunday morning...). My faith in (as Craig calls us) nerds is restored. We gotta make a living but we don't have to sell out.
I recommend
Its a long shot to think that eBay could expand to include a highly regional business. My guess is its not likely to happen, but if it does I may take another look at eBay. In the mean time, Craigslist meets all my needs and after reading the article I an reassured that they match my philosophical views too. Like Google, doing simple very well can be fair and also profitable.
I'm stupid.. Sorry. I'll use the preview button from now on, honest.
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