Craigslist, Wikipedia founders grapple with big issues

At least 1,000 people packed the room for the South by Southwest Interactive keynote conversation in Austin, Texas on Monday between Craigslist founder Craig Newmark and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.

For the most part, the talk was Newmark's opportunity to speak directly to some of his biggest fans - many of whom owe their jobs, homes and even partners to Craigslist. Wales didn't end up talking too much about Wikipedia, though it was clear some in the audience would have liked him to do so.

Instead, Newmark mostly answered first Wales' questions, and then those from the audience.

If there was a theme to the conversation, it was that communities such as Craigslist and Wikipedia depend entirely on the general trustworthiness of their users, despite occasional problems. And despite constant growth, those communities are becoming more trustworthy, not less, though they require constant vigilance, Newmark said.

He said: "This wisdom of crowds thing - it may be a cliché but it's mostly true. What we're talking about here is a democracy, and it works, but you have to be careful before it gets out of control."

One interesting moment came when Wales asked Newmark about his theory that TiVo can become a tool for saving democracy.

Newmark replied that one of the biggest problems in recent US history is elected officials' never-ending fundraising in order to pay for expensive television campaign ads. And thus TiVo's opportunity to save democracy, he explained.

Newmark said: "The miracle of DVRs, not just TiVo, is that you can skip through commercials, and in my fantasy life... if everyone started skipping political commercials, that would defeat their purpose, and that would be a good thing. Then politicians would have to say more. That's what I feel in my own little fantasy world. I do feel it's everyone's patriotic duty to skip commercials, at least political commercials, and I feel it's the DVR manufacturers' patriotic duty to make 30-second skip easier for everyone."

Newmark also mused a fair amount about the future of citizen journalism. But where some in the blogosphere are increasingly calling for the death of the so-called mainstream media, he said it is important to have professional writers and editors, since such work is difficult. Further, he said, it is important to have professionals willing to spend long days devoted to covering crucial stories.

Still, he noted that the mainstream press has increasingly dropped the ball and that society suffers because of it. Thus, he said, the ideal situation would be a joining of forces between the mainstream press and citizen journalists.

One audience member asked what changes Craigslist anticipates in the future, and Newmark responded by saying he expects to do more of what the site has done all along: keep a simple user interface with free, user-created content dominating.

Still, he said, he expects to change the current model - in which Craistlist charges only for job listings, and said he expects to begin charging for apartment listings in New York, after apartment brokers there actually asked the site to do so in the hopes of cutting down on fraud and redundant listings.

In the end, however, the biggest applause of the day went to Wales, who said, in response to a question about Google's recent expansion into China and its decision to censor its Chinese site, that Wikipedia would not follow the search engine giant's example.

Wales said: "Like most people, I love Google and use it all the time, and like most people, I'm a little uncomfortable with what they're doing in China. [But,] we will never compromise with censorship."

Daniel Terdiman writes for CNET News.com