The Adventures of Cindy Li

SXSW 2006: Keynote Craigslist and Wikipedia guy

March 13 , 2006

Craig from Craigslist

Go back being customer service…Why are you so involved in customer service? Personally involved you?

When you are management…

Would get out of touch w/reality.
That’s when things get declined. You learn that different ways.
President Bartlet has a team of people to keep him in touch w/the world..reference to American tv show… I’m blanking.. Norm: “west wing..”
I’m on sleep deprived.. :)

We saw people posting fetishes…

the obsession w/Hilary Clinton continues. We’ve seen ugly things and that’s a problem. I take it personally because its my site.  I’m concerned w/the news sites ...
and on wiki people are slandering people, or making false information.
Most of the cops you see on-line are very concerned about privacy rights. The fancy offices on CSI(american tv show) are not real. None of them look that good, and they aren’t having that much sex.

Crooks are early adopters

we started seeing years ago, all this crap on the site. Nigerian scammers, disinformation and things like that as far as we could tell the amount of crookedness isn’t increasing that much. The big lesson: people are overwhelmingly trusting and good. Trustworthy people are more online. I am sorry to sound optimistic I prefer to be cynical. People are good.. are drowning out the bad guys.
People are OK.

Wiki…most people are good.

Democracy works but you have to be careful and things do get out of control.

Wiki guy: we talk by cell phone (craig and I)
What did you guys talk about? I’m not sure….::laughter:::
Tivo is going to save democracy (craig said)

Craig:Aside from tivo.. and I’m really hoping Josh and Donna get together (west wing), CJ got the promotion she deserved.. what would u do if you had a lying press secretary… oh right Tivo saves democracy…

I’m not interested in politics per se…

The deal is when a politician is elected.. they have to get elected to get more money. I have a rich fantasy life if everyone started skipping political commercials it would be a good thing. What product placement could be in shows then? Politicians would have to say more and news would have to change. The patriotic duty to skip commercials. Patriotic duty to make 30-second skip for everyone Although there are hacks online. No one knows my politics cause I haven’t told anyone. The interest in politics is to fight scams so I have to enlist politics to fight these.

Wiki: a lot of political stuff that is right or left that people can agree on. You talk about information warfare. Moving away from a culture that is bombarded about mindless issues for a real dialog. It is something we can get people on board.

Craig: Any of us take issue with what they are saying, regarding politics and how people think. There are some basic moral values/american values that we agree with before we fight we should reflect of what we have in common. I am a uniter not a divider. One Voice, group I am part of. People want a reasonable deal and the fighting to stop. Extremists on both sides trying to start things up.  We can see the stats on casual encounters, erotic encounters people everywhere have the same interests. In San Francisco, we talk about it more but that’s the difference.

In a community we find ways to get along

In a way traditional media finds the differences.  People just want to get a long don’t want to argue. There are of course trolls that want fights. Sometimes I have to get people blocked. I do work w/lots of people in isps and they are pretty reasonable even when their corporations don’t. 
I am now experimenting them to change things internally. They are public spokesman by maintaining a public standard.

Wiki: in talking about a lot of these issues, journalism.

Craig: I do like the sound of my own voice. Pontification. To run a democratic society you need news, know things that are going on things you can talk about things you can’t. That’s the way life is. I see what’s happening in the news industry we see what is on craigslist. Newspapers are loosing money because of craigslist. As a citizen we need a better way to see what things are going on. We see articles that are important in other places.

We need better information and better sources

We need better investigator services. They are really expensive to get someone to work on a story to not make any money. So the kind of stuff I’m doing I am working on a marginal way. Mostly ordinary people trying to figure out what is the most trustworthy news stories. Posting things that most newspapers won’t post. Citizen journalism if you are paying attention to the field you can’t find anything specific with CJ (west wing reference). I don’t have time to figure that out because I"m trying to find out what people are doing in the pets forum. Bickering about pets… people who feel breeding at home is ok (pets) vs for professional. They have neutralized himself. I am the kind of guy that will carry dog treats in my bag.. they are chewy chicken .. lunch. 

Elections..

They were known for writing books selling the president. They document unethical behavior a year after. They are talking about blogging. Think about corruption in the fall elections. The center of responsible politics. databases that would allow us to see who is paying who for what favors. That information is in the federal election databases. It is a good story for Citizen journalism. Pick your district. Out pops things that aren’t happening. How much trouble am I getting into for doing that? This is the journalism stuff that is exciting. If you want to tell people the truth make them laugh or they will kill you. Daily show, coal bear show channel?, the onion…
trusted news sources.

Wiki: Dog wars are never ending.. people arguing on wiki…

Craigslist:there is no right or wrong, whose dog is bigger than me.

Wiki: questions???

I am a journalist and work for media.. so what the hell should we do?
Craig: I don’t want to jerk you around. Jarvis came out w/blogging today and Dan Gilmore brief.. engaging the community get them involved w/working reporters start getting people to help write stories. Newspapers are expensive, print paper..and now w/the flex displays. Low powered lasers that read your eyeballs.

Girl in audience:A journalism professor was on pbs today saying it was your fault Craig..newspapers have made themselves less relevant, missing out their job on investigative journalism. To find out the real story on blogs.

Profit margins….

Craig: lot of classified biz that is being lost. newspapers should be community services. Return of that will be a loss of money for newspapers.

Girl: Phil Meyers said newspapers can’t compete because it can’t be global the way blogging is.

Craig: The big point is think globally act locally

Jim Buckmaster is my ceo, new issue of fortune you will see pics of Jim.
Voted sexiest man #2, Craig was voted #2 geekiest.
Real estate is a blood support

Audience: A concern .. citizen journalism is not supported by both skill of knowledge to get factual story and to spend the time for it. What challenges do you see for citizen journalism accuracy.
Craig: Put something out that is reasonably accurate. Newspapers put a great deal of fact checking… coal mining accident.. people were alive.. but weren’t.
The best model of fact checking doing the research is the daily show.

Wiki: Everyone tells jokes but we have professional comedians still.

Craig: we have good citizen media and we will find some in professional that isn’t. Writing is hard. You will need professionals in news.

Question:congratulate making the cover of a cover of something??Costco (http://www.costco.com) cover.
Connected w/craigslist after Katrina and these women used.
The design hasn’t gotten sexy or anything.. is that essence going to continue.

Craig: the deal is the biggest is getting out of the way

people repurposed our site so they could talk to each other. Job offers..
we got out of the way is important. When I talk to news editors to get it right i get out of the way. I didn’t know any better when I created it. Stay philosophically the same no interest in changing the design, except making the main-page less about San Fran.  There is a panel about redesigning our site.

We will be charging for ... ?

Charge people who would otherwise be paying for less effective ads.
New york apartments. Charge for job/landlords/employers not people looking for jobs not for people looking for a place to live.

Improve quality so that it gets rid of scammers

How to do it right? Getting rid of spamvertisers.

Audience: we’ve been following how people help people
Craigslist is the only open immediate entry website that has people actively helping victims of Katrina.  We just need your approval.

Craig: Sure .. we can bug jim@craigslist and cc me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
I don’t want to forget some of my folks realized that they needed to be doing extra things to help. They created baton rouge site to help. They didn’t ask they just did it.
There was a scam from a FEMA site..
for the most support is getting out of the way again :)
Other people using what they need. People who use the site are the people who run it. We handle certain circumstances.

Wiki: we get thanked for things other people do

How important the community is. People think of craigslist as a great place to go

Wiki works because it was free..

for profit .. communities can build amazing things but you have to be part of the community. You’ll loose what worked in the first place. You have to be respectable.

Wiki: Google is censored in china…

Wiki has been blocked and we won’t be censored.
Google is taking a lot of hit for things other companies already do. The amount of heat they got but I’m here to be here and say we don’t have to do that.
There is a better way to stand-up for people in China.

Craig: google will be there.. slow gradual approach is better than a dramatic gesture it makes you feel better but.. is it better? We have much scarier things that happen here for free speech here in the US. We do see cases where information that is supposed to be public is being fooled around with. Freedom of info act requests are taking longer than they are supposed to.. info being deleted. Things are much scarier. Get our house in order before we make judgments elsewhere.

Wiki: A plausible argument.. make sure that in the details is it a positive impact?
Craig: both of us are in positions in creating consequences…
we have to do things well. not making judgments on people. We have bigger concerns in this country. Re: Google, telling the two guys at google apart..