I thought Rusbridger’s comparison of the New York Times and Craig’s List was a fantastic stroke. I listened to the talk online, and to hear him show comparisons of each business’s place of work, price of placing and add and how many people they employed, and hearing the audience laugh at the difference was great. The thing that really surprised me was that Craig Newmark has been offered tons of money to let the whole thing go, and he refuses. Rusbridger said:
“They’ve tried to IP own; they’ve tried to float him; they’ve offered him untold and obscene billions of dollars in order to just give up this ludicrous exercise and come to his senses and his answer is, ‘look, this is a sort of utopian exercise I’m doing; it’s a really interesting thing on the internet. I just want to give these people space; I’m not interested in money; I employ my 18 people’.”
I didn’t think there were people still out there like that. But when you think about it, this Craig didn’t plan to have this huge thing that would scare corporate America—he was just a guy looking to get information when he moved to a new area. Imagine his surprise when all of this happened. Wikipedia claims Newmark is a huge advocate for the internet being free. It must be nice to have been a “little guy,” become a “somebody,” and be able to say to a big industry used to throwing its weight around, “No, I’m not going to do what you say, I’m going to continue to do what I want, thank you.” Just stick it to ‘em a little.
So maybe that’s part of the answer to one of my previous blogs…how to get myself motivated to be active. Yes, we want to change the world. We want a better life for our children. We want a better environment, better schools, better community leaders—all those things. But sometimes…it must just feel good to stick it to the Man.
