One thing we know the Internet and Open Source make possible is success defined by something other than the bottom line.
The Open Source movement itself has long been led by people who could have been rich but chose not to be. People like Richard Stallman and Linus Torvalds do manage to avoid the poor house, but they’re quite satisfied with their modest lives, which are completely out-of-scale with the good they do in the world.
Many bloggers are the same way. Some just want to be heard. Others want a little influence. Some just want to help.
These are valid motivations, but the leaders of the Proprietary World — the "smart guys" in New York, or the "kewl kids" in Washington or the "media darlings" in Los Angeles — they just can’t conceive of this being a valid stance.
Which brings us to Craig Newmark and Craigslist.
Newmark and his "partner," Jim Buckmaster, just aren’t motivated by the idea of getting rich. This gives them an enormous advantage in the Internet market. They’re not thinking of how to hose the users, but how to serve them. They’re not using the funds Craigslist throws off to fund lavish lifestyles — they plunge it all back into the business. And they really aren’t interested in maximizing revenue at all.
This led to a "culture clash" of major proportions when Buckmaster spoke to a media conference sponsored by UBS recently.
Larry Dignan of ZDNet (that’s him on the left) has a straight post about it but calls Buckmaster "delightfully Communist," because he really doesn’t know another word to use. And because he knows it will get him traffic, attention, blog love.
The New York Times covered the meeting as well,
and was just as amazed as Dignan about Buckmaster’s stance. They gave
extensive coverage to the amazement of UBS analyst Ben Schachter, and
quote Tech Trader Daily as wondering what might happen if Craigslist’s founders became "what is the word — capitalists."
Well, it is very clear what would happen. They would become
vulnerable is what would happen. If Craigslist chose to consider its
own interests first, it would inevitably create an opening for some
other entrepreneur. And in fact there are several more capitalistic,
entrepreneurial efforts aimed at taking money from Craigslist. Some are
even making money. But they’re not grabbing big hunks of market share.
This is a much more important story than either the Times or Dignan
knows. That’s because it gets to the heart of a crucial difference
between the Open Source Thesis, the Internet Values era we’re entering,
and the Proprietary Era we are leaving behind.
Altruism. Service. All the other possible motivations for our
actions, beyond greed or avarice or drive for power, are enabled by the
Internet, to an even greater extent than the profit motive itself is
enabled. You can do things on this medium that change the world, for
the better, and not only will you not be crushed by someone trying to
seize proprietary advantage, you just might win.
This is an enormous economic and political change. This is a sea
change in human relations the likes of which we haven’t seen in 250
years. And the U.S. establishment, none of it, has yet awakened to its
implications.
But now you have.
