cnewmark

Everyone, my personal thanks for your support!

Hey, I've been overwhelmed by the support you've shown recently, for craigslist and me personally.

First, I've tried to thank each and every one of you, but I'm sure I missed stuff; feel free to resend.

Second, I really appreciate it. Good to know folks see past the politics and hit pieces, and know we are working to do the right thing.

This means a great deal to me personally, and I'll keep the faith, and we'll do so as a team.

Thanks!

Security Innovation Network: serious about cybersecurity

Despite the hype around computer security, it's very real, and is a new form of warfare.

There's a really good group, the "Security Innovation Network™ (SINET)" which is focused on this, trying to show people some emerging companies with some innovative tech.

Here's a little more:

The Security Innovation Network will present 20 "best of class" emerging growth solution providers on October 26 & 27 at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C.  Closing keynote by General Keith B. Alexander, Director of the National Security Agency and Commander of the U.S. Cyber Command (DoD).

Darell Hammond from KaBoom! building playgrounds

The story is short and great: Helping Out: His life is a playground (or 2,000 of them):

Founder and chief executive of KaBoom, a nonprofit that builds playgrounds in communities.

Charitable giving highlights: The nonprofit has built nearly 2,000 playgrounds, raised $200 million and galvanized 100,000 volunteers throughout the country and internationally.

Net neutrality stuff still being worked on, a good thing!

Hey, Net Neutrality is mostly about a level playing field on the Net, where everyone has a chance to get their stuff out there regardless of privilege.

Some stuff's being still worked out, and I can only encourage people to chill!

From the FCC site:

These efforts – including the dedicated work of FCC staff and participation by a broad range of
stakeholders – have over time changed the terms of a longstanding and acrimonious debate. We have
moved from a world of four disputed and unenforceable open Internet principles – about blocking
by broadband providers of lawful online content, applications, and services – toward the
acceptance of six enforceable rules: the original four principles plus the concepts of
non-discrimination and transparency. These would prevent broadband providers from wrongly playing favorites with lawful Internet speech or businesses, and would empower consumers and
entrepreneurs with information about broadband choices and networks.

We have made progress over the last year – but of course we still have work to do.

Secretary Clinton speaks up for Pakistan relief efforts

Hey, as a country we're finding new ways for American citizens to help others across the world.

You can give at state.gov or by texting flood to 277222.

 

Jim Buckmaster scorns Amber Lyon in favor of Anderson Cooper

craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster and I are pretty sick of CNN's Amber Lyon.  Jim told her why in a new blog post, in which he also invited Amber's boss, Anderson Cooper, for a sit-down interview.

Disabled American Vets in Bay Area to help veterans

(breaking news, rushing this in, hope to file before lose flight wifi)

The Disabled American Veterans (DAV) group has outfitted a number of vans that serve as mobile offices that literally put their services on the road and assist veterans where they live. Their sole purpose is to help provide the services and benefits our veterans have earned, free of charge. With more than 3 million disabled veterans in America, it has taken dedication, resolve and quite a bit of creativity, but the results have been astounding.

Last year, the DAV mobile offices traveled more than 114,056 miles, visited 727 cities and interviewed 18,647 veterans and other potential claimants. With the addition of the mobile strategy, the DAV assists nearly a quarter of a million veterans and their families each year in claims for benefits that their sacrifices have earned. But it’s really the stories behind the numbers that the work the DAV does that is so important. For instance, one veteran recently transitioned from homelessness to having his own apartment after one quick visit with the DAV to help him qualify for the appropriate benefits.

 

CA Redbluff August 30, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Redbluff Veterans Hall 735 Oak Street Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

CA Petaluma August 31, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
DAV Old Adobe Chapter #117 1094 Petaluma Boulevard South Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

CA Santa Rosa September 1, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
DAV Sonoma County Chapter #48 1351 Maple Street Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

CA Sonoma September 2, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Sonoma Veterans Memorial Bldg 126 1st Street West Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

CA Vacaville September 3, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
DAV Vacaville Chapter #84 549 Merchant Street Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

CA Fremont September 7, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Washington Township Veterans Bldg 37154 2nd Street Stephen Garrett 510-834-2921

Rediscovering the American Dream

Throughout the world, people view America as the place to find a better life, still feeling that we are "the shining city on the hill." People aspire to be part of our vital and large middle class.

That was true of my family two generations ago and is still true for much of the world. You work hard, you play by the rules, you move ahead. It works.

Sure, in past years politicians and tax policy have been fairly successful transferring wealth from the middle class to a small upper class. That's the point of tax breaks for the rich. However, I see a lot of vitality in the American middle class.

If you want a good look, read the first four parts of Third World America, by Arianna Huffington. It's not pretty, but we see the results every day in unemployment statistics. A few politicians, over eight years, created an economic Pearl Harbor.

After getting your attention, Third World America talks about restoring the American Dream. We have a problem, but we're not in free-fall. We admit we have a problem, and as Americans, we're pretty good at getting stuff done.

Well, this means that each and every one of us needs to be a kind of new patriot, first facing the problem, then linking up with each other, from the grass roots up. The big danger is that such efforts often get co-opted by the people who created the problem, that's already happened.

America's response to Pearl Harbor reminds us that Americans can do anything, and we can rise above the current situation and come out ahead.

The last part of Third World America talks about that -- where when we work together, we really can change things, if we each engage in this new patriotism.

The new patriotism means that each of us, if we have the resources, needs to give the other person a break, in a way that connects with others who can help out.

Maybe the best example of that are the women and men of the armed forces, which I take personally; if someone's going overseas to risk a bullet for me, I'll do what I can to help out. That means supporting the people who support veterans, particularly wounded warriors. It means doing so as part of multiple teams, including Veterans Affairs, the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America, and a bunch of other groups, with more to come.

The deal there is traditional American teamwork, where we become part of something bigger than ourselves, where service to others becomes part of our normal expectation of each other. That's what happened on Pearl Harbor Day. There're a lot of ways to do this, including the everyday volunteerism of AllForGood.org. Education is a vital part of the American Dream, and I recommend DonorsChoose.org as a small, practical way to help teachers help their kids. Okay, there are lot of such groups, these are just a few of the roughly one hundred I help out.

Specifically, I bear witness to the good efforts of others who do the real work. (While I provide other significant assistance, they all tell me what they really need is someone to stand up for them.)

Here's something new: jobs for veterans are desperately needed, and conventional online job boards don't seem to get it done. Maybe we need a way to mark possible jobs as vet-friendly, and to mark resumes as from recent vets. For sure, we need help from professional recruiters and job placement organizations to translate the way military skills are articulated into private sector terms. Attempts to translate formal job categories, well, I feel that needs a human touch every time. (Yes, that's a tangent, indulge me.)

While I'm at this, here's the biggest job skill vets have that never gets discussed. Vets, particularly combat vets, are really good at 1) assessing the situation fast, 2) making a decision, and 3) getting stuff done. That's maybe the most critical skill of all, private or public sector. Hey, maybe that's what "leadership" is. (Okay, another tangent.)

In any case, revitalizing the middle class involves mutual support for each other, we need to stand up for each other. The attitude is that "I got your back" for everyone.

I sure don't know how to do that, but ... I feel that social media is key. It's half baked for now, but I plan to use some social media tool to bear witness for every good effort I work with. The plan is to have those folks do the same, in a spreading grassroots network of networks. You're going to hear from me.

Me, I've signed up for twenty years of this, a kind of voyage, to go boldly where no nerd has gone before.

Veterans: the Blue Button gets you electronic health records

Okay, this is a really big deal for two reasons.

Getting your medical records from doctor to doctor is really important. If you're a vet, this makes it really easy:

The MyHealtheVet Personal Health Record (PHR) is comprised of self-entered health metrics (blood pressure, weight, heart rate, etc.), emergency contact information, test results, family health history, military health history, and other health related information. The Blue Button extract that Veterans can download is a so-called “ASCII text file”, the easiest and simplest electronic text format (see a sample Blue Button file).

Blue Button PHRs can be printed, or saved on computers and portable storage devices. Having control of this information enables Veterans to share this data with health care providers, caregivers, or people they trust.

Also, really big: this effort represents another step toward a more effective Veterans Affairs operation, which better serves their customers, and which learns from the private sector to return better value for the taxpayer dollar. This is happening all over Washington, with VA,yes VA, helping to blaze a new trail.

Amber's "Ambush" - the Point Was What?

CNN's Amber Lyon has been crowing for weeks about scoring an ambush interview against me. Boy, if she only knew that successfully ambushing me is about as big an accomplishment as stealing nuts from one of the birds or squirrels I like to Tweet about.

Here's the deal. As old time craigslisters know, I'm a hard-wired nerd with symptoms I'm told border on Asperger's Syndrome. That means I'm too trusting, often socially inept, have difficulty shifting focus, and frequently am unsure what to do in situations others handle easily. And I don't have a normal person's ability to sense when someone might be looking to take advantage of these shortcomings.

Amber approached me after an event where I had just spoken about stuff like getting real support for our troops and veterans -- a cause I care about and support whenever I can. She said because "I'm the Craig in craigslist," she expected me to have all the answers on the spot about anything to do with the company. Well, I don't. Jim Buckmaster, our CEO, has been running craigslist for the last 10 years. I am a customer service rep, and I still love being connected to our users and trying to help people. But I have no role in managing the company's operations because basically (a) I suck as a manager, and (b) while overall company direction matters to me as founder and a board director,  the deal was to hire good, trustworthy people and then get outta the way.

If Amber had done her homework, she would have known ambushing me with questions I am not qualified to answer, or even the right person to ask, would not get CNN's viewers the accurate information they deserve.

So I should have said, "Hey, thanks, but Jim's the guy your viewers should hear from." Instead, I froze and looked clueless, and, worse than that, uncaring. Clueless I definitely am sometimes, but not uncaring. Neither is craigslist and neither is Jim. I know our folks have worked very hard to identify and do the right thing with legitimate versus illegitimate adult service ads. From what I can tell that's a lot more difficult to do perfectly than is being portrayed by CNN and other media. I know we're also reaching out to lots of concerned groups and experts for help on these issues, which sure makes sense to me.

Meanwhile, Amber, CNN, and others are depicting Jim and I as profiteers oblivious to the welfare of women and children. Anyone that's followed us over all these years knows that's not at all what we're about. In reality, we're both pretty obsessed with trying to make the world a better place, and neither have much interest in possessions or fancy lifestyles. Me, I'll stick to my causes, like doing right by our veterans, keeping the faith on net neutrality, and working toward better governance. And hopefully be a little more perceptive about the true intent of reporters I talk to.

Wish me luck, I'll need it.

Help the White House "Salute the Troops"

Hey, I was in my late teens when I saw how Viet Nam vets were treated, and it wasn't right.

Now, we have a much better chance to show how much we appreciate the service of Americans fighting for us, via the White House "salute the troops" effort.

The current Administration has been seriously supporting veterans by getting them the educational and medicial benefits they're earned, with a Veterans Administration that's finding new and better way to serve vets.

Now it's our turn, at least to say thanks. Check out that page, do what you can.

You've seen how I'm working with the Department of Veterans Affairs for some time, more next week, and I'm helping vets groups like the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America. My role is always very small, but that's what it takes. Now, I've been asked to think about getting jobs for vets, and I might be asking for your help.

For now, tweeting and on Facebook:

Time to #salutetroops: I appreciate your service, particularly overseas, and will do my small part. Next: jobs for vets.

The Blue Sweater 500 Competition

Hey, The Blue Sweater is a for-real inspiring personal story of Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO and founder of Acumen Fund. It's a real call to action to all those concerned with growing inequality around the globe.

This stuff gets results.

They're giving away a whole bunch of copies, check it out here:

Through the gift of a generous donor, we have 500 paperback copies of The Blue Sweater to give away in quantities of 25, 50, or 100 books. Entries will be judged based on originality, impact, and need. Winners will receive a shipment of books this fall and will be asked to write a post for Acumen’s blog that will share the outcomes of their projects with the world using photo and/or video.

Proposals will be accepted from now until September 16^th, and winners announced on October 1^st. 

Breaking: eBay classifieds sell hard core porn and more

Hey, check out the details here, but here's the gist:

As a practical example of eBay’s “advanced filtering” and “family friendly” classifieds, we’ve been shown some ads currently live on eBay’s Loquo.com classifieds site, which features thousands of paid ads offering various sexual acts in exchange for money (NSFW). The highly explicit photographs included in the following example ads depict young Asian females engaged in unprotected sex, along with rates and a listing of specific sex acts (in Spanish) on offer.

Gubernatorial hopeful Meg Whitman was fully aware of this business during her tenure at eBay.

craigslist needs help getting evidence re human trafficking

I agree with all who say that human trafficking is a horrible crime.

That's why Jim Buckmaster released this open letter today.

If you know or suspect that any such crime is happening on craigslist:

-- send the links to the cops immediately!
-- ask the cops to contact us
-- send us the links!

If you know of any such crime in the past:

-- send us the police reports
-- send us anything other hard evidence

Don't be one of those who makes allegations without backing them up with substance -- be a part of the solution.

Send whatever you have to legal@craigslist.org, now!

Culture change at the Dept of Veterans Affairs

If we're serious about supporting the troops, that means serious support for those who help vets.

Like anything in Washington, that means changing the culture, and it's happening at the Department of Veterans Affairs.

I've worked with these guys, they're for real.

VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker and VA Chief Technology Officer Peter Levin said that three changes must take place at an agency to make innovation possible: cultural change, which is the hardest; infrastructural change, which is the easiest; and process change. But Levin said even the cultural change turned out to be easier than expected, in part because employees responded in such large numbers to innovation initiatives and contests. In the two idea contests VA has run thus far, more than 50,000 VA employees have submitted more than 10,000 new ideas, he said.

"In the environment we're creating, failure in a transparent mode is still failure, but it's not a negative thing," Baker said. "If you're not failing, you're not trying. We're holding people accountable for it. If your project is failing and I don't have an e-mail that says 'red flag,' there's a problem."

Real public service cease smoking thing from official antismoking org

Hey, the folks at American Legacy Foundation are the real deal, set up by lots of states as part of a settlement deal with the tobacco companies.

They run the Truth campaign, trying to prevent addiction among the young.

Now they got what looks like an effective way to stop smoking, check it out!

This three step online quit plan takes a different approach than most quit programs.  It is based on the latest scientific research and practical experience from real ex-smokers. You can create a personalized Quit Plan on www.BecomeAnEX.org  and  because social support is key to quitting just like it is for any other lifestyle change, you’ll be able to connect with a huge online community of other smokers who are also trying to quit.

 

EX also has a Facebook application to match up online smokers who have the same triggers (like drinking coffee or your favorite brew) and regularly tweet about the things you need to know as a quitter. Or the EX new iphone app that will help smokers quit and stay quit on the go. Whether this is your first try to quit smoking or your 10^th, you can do it and EX can help.

Red Cross Summit: using online tech better

Hey, people are really using social media to call for help. At craigslist during Katrina, etc, we saw a lot of people asking for help, lots offering help, and connecting successfully.

A lot of people are getting together in Washington soon to step it up, check this out:

Social media has radically changed how people communicate, including their calls for help. As we have seen in Haiti and other smaller disasters, now, people Tweet, add a Facebook status or text about a natural disaster. And they expect a response. Emergency and disaster response organizations are working to develop a process to address this and harness the communication power of new media.

To meet this growing challenge, the American Red Cross is launching an initiative to address how to reply to these digital cries for help more effectively.  This includes an Emergency Social Data Summit on Thursday August 12, 2010, in Washington, D.C with government agencies, emergency management professionals, disaster response organizations, tech companies and concerned citizens. There is also an online blog/white paper discussion of the issue.

Real grassroots innovation from Dept Health & Human Services

Hey, the Open Government spirit involves management listening to the rank and file, to hear what they know and how to do it better.

Real progress just announced at the Department of Health and Human Services:

HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the six winners of innovation awards in the first cycle of the HHSinnovates program.  The program is aimed at supporting a “culture of innovation” in one of the federal government’s largest Departments.

The “Secretary’s Pick” awards go to:

• National Collaboration on Childhood Obesity Research 

• Text4Baby

• Purchasing Online Tracking System (POTS)

The other awardees selected through the employee vote are:

• CDC Lab Recycling Pilot Program

• Personal Dust Monitor

• CDC Course on Public Health and Aging

Some other guy from outside was involved.

iPad Compulsive Disorder

It's just too convenient when the thing is on my night table, and I can get so much done...

Hey, don't believe everything you see on TV about craigslist

Folks, don't believe everything you see on TV. 

CNN allowed a couple of deceptive attacks on us yesterday. 

Here's Jim Buckmaster's response, some real facts and honesty.

Thanks!

Hey, kids, a cartoon!

Reminds us, don't believe everything you see!

Hey, here's the original from Matt Bors!

(from the Society of Professional Journalists.)

 

Better customer service for the whole Federal government?

Well, a big part of the whole Open Government Initiative is about customer service, and new ways to do that.

USA.gov has moved ahead to do a lot of that, in some ways using private sector techniques for better public service. That means better return for the taxpayer dollar.

Here's one more step... in cities including New York and San Francisco, we have 311 systems, where you can get help figuring out what's next in government to get something done, anywhere from filling in a pothole to getting the right license.

Could USA.gov be the means to do that for the whole Federal system? Let's nudge a few folks...

UPDATE: Okay, yes, car accident on way to airport, yes, I'm okay

UPDATE: home now, feel okay for now, might be different tomorrow.

More concerned about a very ugly scam hitting us, more later.

Thanks for all your concern and nice notes!

Since I've been blabbing about it... taxi driver lost control, hit divider, I'm 100% okay.

Airport on time.

Maybe not okay as I thought...