Interview: Craig Newmark, Founder of Craigslist

By thinksocial on May 12, 2009 | 128No Commentshttp://think-social.org/qa-craig-newmark-founder-of-craigslist.htmInterview%3A+Craig+Newmark%2C+Founder+of+Craigslist2009-05-12+16%3A38%3A56thinksocial

CRAIG NEWMARK
Founder of Craigslist

Twitter: http://twitter.com/craignewmark

Craig Alexander Newmark was born December 6, 1952, in Morristown, New Jersey. He is an Internet entrepreneur best known as the founder and an active customer service rep of the San Francisco based group of community websites known as craigslist.

TS: What do you think the public interest of social media is?

Craig Newmark: From one perspective it’s a way for people to just socialize with their friends; from perhaps a bigger perspective social media is being used by people to connect – to promote causes and efforts which are bigger than themselves. For example, I’m using social media, specifically, right now, Facebook, Twitter and my own blog to promote support for returning war veterans.  I did a little bit of that ten minutes ago.

TS: What do you think the responsibilities of Craigslist are as regards that public interest?

CN: At Craigslist we figure that we will do well as a company by doing good for people.  We’re both a business and a community service, and that works for us. More and more people are seeing that they can participate in making the world better just by getting involved through social media. We saw that on November 4th and we’re now seeing it in other ways.

TS: Do you think governments have a particular responsibility to consider that shift?

CN: Yes. For example, I’ve been working a lot with the Federal Web Managers’ Council in trying to help hem to use social media because they want to do their jobs better. That’s mostly in serving the public directly, but also in areas including public diplomacy.

TS: Do you think people expect their governments and their leaders now to be web savvy?

CN: Yes, I think there’s a large expectation among a lot of people.

TS: What do you look at in terms of social media and get excited about?

CN: I don’t really look at any one technology and get excited. It’s more when I  look at everything going on and see increasing numbers of people getting involved and how social media can change the way organizations and societies work. Social media allows the workers in any organization, private or government, to work together to make things better. And that’s a real movement. It’s just starting now, but I think it will change a lot of organizations as it’s already changing our way of governance.

TS: And what do you think the greatest threats are to that?  Where could it go wrong?

CN: I do see some problems with the people in some governments trying to disrupt or censor social media or prevent people using it.  I think that’s really the only thing I’ve observed that might cause a problem.

TS: On the other side of the coin who do you think the real leaders are in pushing forward the public interest of social media?

CN: Well, the biggest contribution is made by the Obama administration. They have an Office of Social Innovation, the Office of New Media, the Office of Science and Technology, the Office of Citizen Participation. This is real and it’s also new.  Then there are people in different clusters doing good work.  The Sunlight Foundation, Techpresident, a lot of people who are making things happen.

TS:  Do you see Craigslist as kind of a pioneer in the social media field?

CN: We perhaps got tens of millions of people in the habit of working together online. And we try to contribute to the right atmosphere which is something.