Inside The Mind Of...Craig Newmark, 10 Questions

Picture courtesy of MediaBistro

Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist, the most committed customer service rep in the world, and social activist for change agreed to 10 questions.

Sure, I could have asked more, but, he's a busy man and I appreciate him taking time out for A Fine Blog.

1- Favorite restaurant in NYC?

No specific preference yet, but favorite coffee includes Joe's on Waverly, Sant Ambroeus, Grey Dog, 88 Orchard.

1a- Favorite fast food place (pizza, falafel, Knish, etc..) in NYC?

Gray's Papaya

2- When does the real estate market turn around?

I don't have a clue.

3- Obama won. Really he did! Has it sunk in and what change are you hoping for the most?

Now, the hard part begins, complementing representative democracy with networked, grassroots democracy. That's for real, just starting, a long process. Also, we're seeing a call to service, and people are responding. Me, I contemplate the metaphor in the Obama platform "a craigslist for service."

4- There is plenty of talk about renewable energy. Is there a new technology that you see taking off in the next 5-10 years?

Of interest are wind power generation, solar thermal, and the electric car and infrastructure system BetterPlace.com (Shai Agassi)

5- I know you are a cause guy. What cause do you fell most strongly about right now?

I'm not a cause guy but more of an on-line community organizer who supports using the net to help solve social issues across the planet. Some examples of folks who are doing a good job of using the net to help are http://www.donorschoose.org/ who have a great model for getting education funding directly to the classroom to accomplish educational projects of individual teachers and schools who apply on-line and http://www.iava.org/ who are helping support our war veterans returning from the middle east who all of us need to better support. The networked grassroots democracy thing reshapes human history, and the new call to service, those are big to me.

6- What is your favorite NY Real Estate blog, aside from A. Fine Blog, of course?

Of course... and I guess curbed.com

7- You've been at it for quite some time with Craigslist. Any sense of boredom? What's next?

No boredom, and I'm committed to CL customer service, forever.

8- What's the best book that you've read in the past year?

Maybe Anathem, Neal Stephenson.

9- You visit New York Frequently. If you had to live here, which neighborhood would you choose?

Working on that, probably the Village area, East, West, or maybe Nolita.

Thanks Craig! Let us know when you are moving to NYC, I'm sure A. Fine can take care of you!