The Circle of Envy in Community Classifieds

mac mini se30
Originally uploaded by benbarren.

Anil Dash aint so happy with the SF Bay Guardian, who aint so happy with Craig Newmark of CraigsList. First the SF Bay "But Craig still annoys me, and here's why: Over and over in his brief speech, he talked about "building community." He acted as if Craigslist was some sort of nonprofit with lofty goals and he a humble servant of the people who wants only to help improve human communications. The problem with that is simple: When Craig comes to town (and he's coming to just about every town in the nation soon), the existing community institutions – say, the locally owned weekly newspaper – have a very hard time competing. In many ways, he's like a Wal-Mart – yeah, landlords get cheaper real estate ads, and consumers find some bargains, but the money all goes out of town. And he puts nothing back into the community: He doesn't, for example, hire reporters or serve as a community watchdog."

Anil nails it when he says "Craigslist builds communities in the cities where it has a presence by providing a home for the gift economy and information trading that is often difficult in contemporary urban society. In short, Craigslist lets people act like neighbors, offering up their items to swap or sell, letting them snipe at each other, helping them find a romantic connection, or just putting you in touch with someone who can find you a job. It builds the human connections that many newspapers aspired to (and a few still provide) and provides a context that real journalists still strive for."

Oh, and how kewl is the Mac Mini in the Mac SE/30. Very retro hip.