Craigslist Founder Seeks Larger DC Role
Craig Newmark, the founder of popular online community Craigslist.org, said Tuesday he is considering whether to "dedicate a big chunk of my life" to those who are driving change in Washington and wants to spend more time practicing his own brand of public service. Was his comment during a keynote at the annual Computers Freedom & Privacy conference a hint he is considering joining President Obama's stable of tech-savvy advisers or running for Congress? Probably not (although he was involved in Obama's campaign). But the Web freedom advocate is eager to get more engaged in the policy debate in the nation's capital. As the government tries to figure out how to effectively use consumer products like micro-blogging site Twitter and photo-sharing site Flickr, Newmark wants to weigh in. "Things are changing in ways we've never seen before in human history," Newmark said, noting that agency Web managers and IT experts may feel "as if the darkness suddenly lifted."
The Internet entrepreneur said he wants to "find the people who are doing the real work" and act as their cheerleader and champion. "As a nerd and former engineer I'm used to being the person who does stuff. Now they tell me my great value is primarily being a person who talks about the good work other people do," Newmark said. He lauded the Obama administration's recently launched open government initiative and Data.gov, a site intended to "democratize data" by offering raw feeds of government information, but warned their ambitious efforts will take time. "When you have a large organization... you have a lot of people with a lot of entrenched power and lot of stakeholders whose buy-in you need," Newmark said. At the same time, the administration will have to routinely analyze the effects of its tech-related projects.
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