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Written while Craig Newmark spoke at Supernova 2006 ten minutes ago. Not published 'til now because our blog database is slow.

Craig stands and introduces himself, his site ("we're a flea market"), and his philosophy: give people what they want. (A ludicrous commie notion threatening the solid tech industry strategy, "give people something broken and charge them to fix it.")

Yep, two minutes in, Craig drops the "My day-job is customer service" schtick. Dude, Craig, we know already. (By the way, he's not quitting.)

The liveblog keeps going after the jump.

"Give people some power, and they respond to it very well. But sometimes, people are prone to mob rule.... You don't want to suffer from the tragedy of the commons."

Big problems for Craigslist:

  • Spam
  • Malicious political propaganda
  • Illegal activity
  • Journalists hug Craig a little too tight (he didn't say that but you know it's true)

Craig brings up his other talking point: The effect on classifieds-funded newspapers is not as important as the ways Craigslist is helping people.

He names Dan Gillmor, failed (or at least not too successful) citizen journalism organizer. Then he names .Jeff Jarvis, the New Media prophet who's supposed to launch his own citizen journo org soon. (Craig, by the way, might work with Jarvis. He doesn't mention this.)

Eep, Craig says "user generated content."

And now Craig's done. Time for a panel to join him to discuss "Power to the People." And it's always cute to hear this discussed by the people who always had power.