The “community” block of the agenda featured Craig Newmark of Craigslist and Mark Dwight, founder of Ricksaw Bagworks in San Francisco. (Thanks to Mark for giving us all the great Zero messenger bags to hold our vodka, etc.)

Craig’s List founder Craig Newmark is passionate about the mundane. He’d like to help you sell your couch, find a roommate, or even fix a pothole.
All of that guided by the simple credo of “I just do what feels right.” Socials were treated to the smooth vocal stylings of the self admitted couch potato Mr Newmark and his vision of the power of community. He sees the real basis of the internet as “people working together for the greater good.”

What started as an art and events e-mail list back in 1994 now gets 50 million visitors a month across 55 countries. Like his site, Craig keeps it
simple, leaving management and board rooms behind and joining the customer service team. “I will do customer service only as long as I live,” says Craig. “Customer service is public service.” Part of that service agenda is trying to kill spam for us all. He believes we must have an open ID system that requires us all to have “reasonably verified” ID’s. Which will in turn force up the cost of creating spam and render it a useless business. A more hidden part of his agenda involves getting into Washington to help government hear more clearly what the common folk have to say. After all, “they often know more than the people in charge.” He also sees Wikipedia as something that is of long term importance to humanity. It’s “the voice of the people writing our history.” Craig eluded to possibly working alongside them soon. He went on to say that “trust is the new black,” and he intends to lead the fight against disinformation on the internet. We’re lucky to have a man like this fighting the good fight to keep the internet the community building tool that it was intended to be. Keep up with him on his blog and twitter craignewmark.

[Editor's Note: Craig also said of his advertising model "I thought banner ads were stupid so i simply did not put them on the site"]

Our next speaker, Mark Dwight, originally responsible for bringing Timbuk2 to fame, is now back in the bag business and doing it in a carefully considered way. The Zero bag we all received uses only four rectangles of material, wasting “zero” material:

He credits the TED conference where he met renowned green architect and author Bill McDunough for changing the way he brings products into the world. (read Cradle to Cradle – changing the way we make things” for more inspiration) Mark spoke about the nuance of building local community though careful craft and spreading the word that “every bag tells a story.” His bags begin by telling a proud story of “SF made,” which is branding he created and stitched for Rickshaw, but shares with anyone else who chooses to build their products in San Francisco. “Geographic ingredient branding” is a big part of how he builds community around his products. He also believes in made to order rather than forecasting, producing and wasting as the fashion industry has always done. He does this by building the chassis of his bags, but leaving the finishing details til the very end. You can actually go into their factory and custom build a bag in about 20 minutes. Gotta love the move towards custom, thoughtfully considered products that people like Mark are bringing to the world. Thanks again Mark for the great bags and for spending some time with us.

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