During today's RiOS Institute's and UC Berkeley's School of Information lecture series New Wave Social ICT Impact, this is how Craig Newmark, of Craigslist fame, described himself.
He was talking to ischool student and faculty about his work at Craiglist, where he is taking care of customer service, a job that entails taking care of spammers and haters. One of his main takeaway from his 12 years with Craigslist is that humans are overwhelmingly trustworthy and good. this is reflected in the profoundly ethical moral compass by which Craigslist is run:
- treat people how you want to be treated yourself
- live and let live
- give others a break every now and then
Craig might consider himself an 'accidental social entrepreneur,' but he does want to change the world, mainly by supporting and giving exposure to people and organizations who are working on worthwhile causes. One area in which he is particularly interested is the Middle East, where he is supporting microfinance organizations such as CHF International (he is a bog fan of microfinance in general), wants to finance internet cafes in the West Bank and also sponsored a latrine in the Hisham ben Adil Malek boys' high school in Jericho (you can see pictures of it on the September 10th posting on his personal blog cnewmark.
High-tech meets low-tech. He does believe in the special power of ICT to bring about social change, through providing Americans with information about other parts of the world, finding out about needs of others and possibilities to do something about it. The internet is getting people together to help, especially with resources and also allows for international cross-pollination of knowledge.
One of his new projects is to support people fighting the 'professional disinformation workers' and their products.
So, while Craigslist's credo seems to come down to Simplicity, Sincerity and Speed, Craig believes in the global power of nerds to change the world. As a self-identified nerd, he 'blindly plunges into things because he doesn't know any better and it seems to be working.' Keep on plunging, Craig.
You can listen to a podcast of the talk thanks to ischool volunteers Kevin and Alana.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
The Golden Rules of ICTD - Rule of Experts
Empowering Technologies for the Developing World
M. Bernardine Dias of TechBridgeWorld in an interview with Technology Reviewin how the
Helping the developing world isn't as easy as sending money and experts. Local values and customs have to be considered, and ultimately, the community has to become able to guide itself. M. Bernardine Dias is the director of Carnegie Mellon University's TechBridgeWorld, a group that partners with developing communities to create sustainable technological solutions to problems within those communities. In advance of her appearance at the Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT later this week, Technology Review talked with Dias about the role that technology can play in the developing world.
She talked about TechBridgeWorld's two golden rules of operation: "We never go anywhere unless we're invited--that translates to having a strong partner within that community. Second, what we do is always framed as a sharing process. We only go in as experts of technology, not to try to dictate where the community should head or what they should be doing, or should not be doing, on a larger scale."
Sounds good.
Anthropologists like Tim Mitchell have shown that expert knowledge is never as disinterested as it they seem and that the technocratic rationality they embody often works in the interest of the powerful, be they development organizations, governments, corporations - and their lastest embodiment of Public-Private Partnerships of which the academy is also often a part.
M. Bernardine Dias of TechBridgeWorld in an interview with Technology Reviewin how the
Helping the developing world isn't as easy as sending money and experts. Local values and customs have to be considered, and ultimately, the community has to become able to guide itself. M. Bernardine Dias is the director of Carnegie Mellon University's TechBridgeWorld, a group that partners with developing communities to create sustainable technological solutions to problems within those communities. In advance of her appearance at the Emerging Technologies Conference at MIT later this week, Technology Review talked with Dias about the role that technology can play in the developing world.
She talked about TechBridgeWorld's two golden rules of operation: "We never go anywhere unless we're invited--that translates to having a strong partner within that community. Second, what we do is always framed as a sharing process. We only go in as experts of technology, not to try to dictate where the community should head or what they should be doing, or should not be doing, on a larger scale."
Sounds good.
Anthropologists like Tim Mitchell have shown that expert knowledge is never as disinterested as it they seem and that the technocratic rationality they embody often works in the interest of the powerful, be they development organizations, governments, corporations - and their lastest embodiment of Public-Private Partnerships of which the academy is also often a part.
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