And there is at least one person in this country who thinks he is raving mad. After reading in the Wall Street Journal that Craigslist could make $500 million a year if it would accept ads on every page (the site is a destination for about 15 million unique visitors a month), this angered reader was moved to write that “when someone throws away a half billion PER YEAR to make a point, some adult should make present management get back on their meds.”

This person and the founder of Craigslist obviously don’t share the same set of values. “We just made an unusual choice,” admits Newmark who believes his site is about “giving people a break”, which he defines as helping each other out and treating people like you want to be treated.

Newmark’s down-to-earth and even-tempered manners, his altruistic outlook on life and his self-derision are greatly refreshing. Amidst the usual Silicon Valley hoopla, spending time with him feels as good for the soul as an hour on a yoga mat.

After Newmark leaves the coffee shop, the man sitting at the next table cannot help but comment on what he has just overheard. “What would he do with more money?” the man muses, clearly in awe of Craig Newmark’s life attitude and contribution to the Internet.

To see what else is on his mind, visit the blog where, never one to take himself too seriously, “craig from craigslist allows himself to pontificate”.

Isabelle Boucq for Atelier

You may also want to hear the podcast by Dominique Piotet: 

• CES 2007: Nokia multiplies mobile applications
  Nokia, which has just announced that it sold some 40 million digital phones in 2006, used this occasion to announce several new products.
• CES 2007: the major trends for the year
  On the 8th of January, the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the biggest electronics fair in the world open to the public, opened its doors in Las Vegas, until the 11th of January. For forty years, the event has been closely following innovations marking the future of advanced technology. 150,000 visitors are expected this year.
• SlingBox: your TV channels when and where you want!
  The 2007 CES in Las Vegas will turn out to be a great one for digital television. How will we watch television in the future, on what equipment, and where - these questions were at the centre of the debate.
• CES 2007: Microsoft soon to commercialise its home server
  It was at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) that Bill Gates unveiled the Windows Home Server, a new operating system for use in the home. It will store all the data from all computers in the same house.
• Dell and Cisco, a clear and complementary vision of the web 2.0
  On January 9th at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Michael Dell (Chairman and founder of the company that bears his name) and John Chambers (since 1995 CEO of Cisco, the world leader in telecommunications equipment), shared their vision of the future and their short- and medium-term strategy. Two visions inspired by consumer experience, totally in line with present trends, and above all, with strategies putting the network at the forefront of tomorrow’s communication and entertainment.

Nokia, which has just announced that it sold some 40 million digital phones in 2006, used this occasion to announce several new products. The manufacturer, presenting a new phone, the Nokia 6231 NFC and tablet, the Nokia N800, also announced that it had signed a cooperation agreement with Skype and the blog editor Six Apart.
 
This year, convergence is the key. The N800 Internet tablet, a multimedia Nokia Nseries computer operates with Linux and has a Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection. With it, you can access your emails, chat with instant messaging and use numerous search functions. The Internet tablet, which is selling for about €399, also includes an audio and video player.

Although the N800 does not work as a mobile phone exactly, users can use IP telephony by downloading Skype software.

The Finnish company also announced the Nokia 6131 NFC, a flip phone which, thanks to NFC (Near Field Communications), can be used to share information using compatible advertising displays or informational kiosks, and to make use of numerous services such as contactless payments, authorising admittance to an exhibition, ticket delivery, etc.

The 6131 NFC will function with Symbian and will come with a Bluetooth connection, a 1.3 megapixel camera, an FM stereo radio or even a hands-free version. It should cost about €300.

Finally, Nokia has also announced forthcoming integration with some Vox Nokia Nseries terminals, a blogging service developed by Six Apart. Mobile users will be able to edit and up/download photos and Web content from their phones.

It was at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) that Bill Gates unveiled the Windows Home Server, a new operating system for use in the home. It will store all the data from all computers in the same house.

Developed with the US manufacturer Hewlett-Packard, the server will store all documents, videos and photos from all the computers in the house. But Windows Home Server will also enable you to share information relating to security and various peripherals, such as printers, between all these computers. The Microsoft game console Xbox 360, as well as the digital media player Zune, can also access the server and share and receive data stored on the Windows Home Server. A real family network!

 All these data can be stored and then transmitted to other PCs or peripherals thanks to an Ethernet connection, a USB port or a Wi-Fi connection.

 The latter will also make use of RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) storage technology and will be based on the Window Server 2003 system, already used by businesses.

 The first to adopt the Windows Home Server will be MediaSmart Server from HP but its price has not yet been announced. And so far, no demonstration has been made of the capabilities of the new operating system. But the CES is not over yet…

The 2007 CES in Las Vegas will turn out to be a great one for digital television. How will we watch television in the future, on what equipment, and where - these questions were at the centre of the debate. All the major operators have taken up their positions on this subject: the mobile phone manufacturers, who all made their own announcements and presented their products, the TV manufacturers, who have declared war over the biggest flat screen, and the big software designers such as Microsoft, which is launching Vista and, most importantly, its home Media Server… and, echoing this theme, Apple’s response straight from the San Francisco MacWorld Expo with the launch of Apple TV.
However, there was one original newcomer that caught everyone’s attention this year. And it could well revolutionise our way of watching TV. SlingMedia, a company set up in 2004 in Silicon Valley, is launching the new version of SlingBox.

The principle behind SlingBox is so simple. You connect it to your TV reception system, whatever that may be: conventional aerial, cable, TiVo…. and of course to your DVD player. You also connect it to the Internet and then you can access your content from anywhere in the world, from any computer and from most mobile phones…

Let’s take a simple example: you have a TiVo, the American system with which you can record all your favourite shows on a hard disk and with which, incidentally, you can avoid adverts. You access the same interface as you have at home via the Internet and a computer and you browse through the menus to watch your programmes, on your office computer, on your laptop whilst travelling, on your mobile phone in the bus, just as if you were at home…..The only thing you need is Internet access. Even the virtual control panel displayed on your screen is very similar to your TiVo remote.

In France, where the product is not yet commercialised, just imagine: you could access your cable or satellite channel provider from your mobile or from any computer….

 With SlingBox, the television becomes just one of the many screens on which you can watch your favourite shows. And there is no need to be connected to the network: SlingBox transmits all your content anywhere, with no subscription.

All you have to do is purchase SlingBox at between $179.79 and $249.49, depending on the model. Then all you need do is plug it in.

The major operators in the field have cottoned on very quickly to the importance of the device as well as its business model, which will not encroach on their own subscriptions. Michael Dell, during his presentation to the CES, said that he had become a great fan, and that he believed that SlingBox would be one of the products that would revolutionise the way we watch TV. He even presented the product in public. A similar enthusiastic response came from Leslie Moonves, Chairman of the American TV channel CBS, announcing a strategic partnership with SlingMedia. He even invited one of the managers of the company to give a public demonstration of the product at his presentation. Even John Chambers, the Chairman of Cisco, was lavish in his praise of the system during his presentation, stating that, from now on, our content will be following us around wherever we go. With SlingBox, this is already a reality.

On January 9th at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Michael Dell (Chairman and founder of the company that bears his name) and John Chambers (since 1995 CEO of Cisco, the world leader in telecommunications equipment), shared their vision of the future and their short- and medium-term strategy. Two visions inspired by consumer experience, totally in line with present trends, and above all, with strategies putting the network at the forefront of tomorrow’s communication and entertainment.

A real American-style show for Michael Dell: his presentation very quickly emphasised the obvious backwardness of the USA in so far as "real broadband" is concerned: optic fibre in every household. Michael Dell addressed US equipment manufacturers and Internet providers, urging them to move forward faster in their efforts. In a world of global competition, American children must have the same opportunities for access as children across the world…

Let’s not forget, in passing, that the OECD distinguished the services from French provider Free as being the best triple-play service on offer, and that the Pau Broadband project, initiated by Jean-Michel Billaut and launched in 2004, still ranks as an honourable precursor. Hurray! And a little statistical information from Michael Dell: in 2007, use of the YouTube bandwidth will be equivalent to that of the Web in the year 2000. So bring on the fibre, fast!
 

Of course, Michael Dell didn’t just come to the CES to lay into the equipment manufacturers, whom he obviously needs. He came to talk about his new products and Dell’s current projects. We learned of a new screen whose reception quality is that of an HD television, a new PC equipped with an HD TV tuner and a new cooling system that stops processors from overheating after several hours on World of Warcraft… Such are the new technical innovations.

Michael Dell then presented the new branded Dell on-line service that can be used for storing and saving all your personal data on external servers; they can then be accessed from any computer. A truly practical solution for migrating all personal data and other files onto a new PC.

Further presentations from the podium emphasised the innovatory nature of the company and its eagerness to respond to the needs of its customers: the design chief behind Blizzard video games presented the new version of World of Warcraft, and the Chairman of Alienware unveiled his new products.

Dell, however, is also an ethical company that cares about the environment, offering all its customers the possibility to recycle their old computers for free. But Dell is going even further, launching a "plant a tree for me" programme, which gives anyone going on the Dell web site, whether they make a purchase or not, the option of donating two dollars to plant a tree and thus play their part in reducing CO2 emissions.

Renowned American scientist, Naomi Hala, thanked Dell and its team for their support for cancer research, which should help her to launch the first non-toxic anti-cancer particle.

Well, you might say, nothing, so far, really exceptional in these technical innovations and ethical commitments. Did Michael Dell just come here to sell his products? Well, not entirely…Because if you think more carefully about these new innovations, and above all about their possible uses, his vision of tomorrow’s web becomes clearer: tomorrow’s web will work via the network. If you look at Michael Dell’s vision and his analysis, you will see that the PC will become merely the entrance point to a network made up of interconnected elements, with data stored externally and accessible from any computer anywhere.

Nevertheless, this vision of an omnipresent web is not, in actual fact, all that original. You can already access your emails with a BlackBerry, watch your own TV channels or programmes that you have recorded at home from across the world with SlingBox, share your holiday photos or your on-line videos with YouTube, etc.

It was John Chamber’s presentation that finally convinced me what my home would be like in a few years’ time. While Michael Dell presented his show with a revolving podium, actors, videos, and participants, when Cisco arrived we felt like we were at the theatre: a huge close-up stage showing an apartment with an imitation fireplace, a giant screen, an office, a child’s room and even the inside of a car. 

John Chambers asks us to follow him and look at tomorrow’s web and above all what our day-to-day lives could be like in the not very distant future. With the help of Cisco’s technical development manager, he leads us into a lifesize presentation and it is very believable! Five words to sum up tomorrow’s world, or Cisco’s "The Human Network": virtual, convergence, simplicity, openness and security. Just imagine this future world: you are driving home in your car; with your version 2.0 car radio you can choose any title in your personal library. OK, so far, nothing particularly new, except that the library in question is not in the car but on the web. When you get home, you have to switch off your favourite song right in the middle, but…your mobile phone rings and asks if you want to carry on listening with it. Once in the house, your media centre takes over, asking if you want to keep on listening and displaying the video on the giant video screen in your living room. Convergence and simplicity! Then you decide to sit down in comfort and watch a football match: your screen tells you that your best friend is also connected. A simple email and you can see him, chat with him, discuss the match with him and even suggest going together to your team’s next match. You can even pay for the tickets on-line, they will be downloaded automatically to your mobile, which will give you access to the stadium. So now you really can use the word "virtual".

Whilst watching the match, you can record the latest episode of your favourite series on CBS: CSI Miami. In his bedroom your son also has access to the family network, but he cannot watch CSI Miami since, as it is unsuitable for children, his parents have used the parental control function to make it inaccessible to him. So - security. After the match, you chat with your best friend about your last holiday in Cancun. You both reminisce but, most importantly, you can share your videos and photos. As you are talking, you can let him access your photo and video galleries, which he can then download and watch on various screens in his house whilst you do the same in yours. Openness and sharing are no more than a click away…

As in Michael Dell’s presentation, there is nothing particularly remarkable in the Cisco version of the near future, nothing which might seem impossible now. Yet, how many Sunday afternoons have you spent converting videos into a format that your friends can access, how many nights converting DVDs or CDs into digital format? That is what it’s really about: the digital age is over! First we had the analogue age, the age of electronics and the first VHS. Then the digital age began, with CDs and DVDs. This is now the network age, the age of shared experience.

In 2004, in an interview with the German magazine Bild, Bill Gates said that the television of the future would "certainly not work with DVD". "That technology will have disappeared in ten years at the most. When you think that even now you have to carry films or music around on little silver disks [...] it seems a little ridiculous", he prophesied. "These things can be wiped clean or simply lost." Quite right! 

On the 8th of January, the Consumer Electronic Show (CES), the biggest electronics fair in the world open to the public, opened its doors in Las Vegas, until the 11th of January. For forty years, the event has been closely following innovations marking the future of advanced technology. 150,000 visitors are expected this year.

This fortieth edition, inaugurated with an opening speech by Bill Gates, the Chairman and Managing Director of Microsoft, is expected to give pride of place to mobile devices and high definition, which look like being the major trends for 2007.

If Sony thought it was being clever with its alliwantforxmasisapsp blog, the idea badly backfired. Presumably written by a couple of hip gamers addicted to the PSP, the blog was actually the brain child of a marketing agency hired by Sony. The blogging community wasted no time calling Sony on its deceptive manoeuvre.

In this case, the bloggers were a complete fabrication. But many marketers use real people - co-workers, relatives or strangers on the streets or on the Net - to push their products on mostly unsuspecting consumers.

“There is nothing legitimate about word-of-mouth marketing,” says Gary Ruskin, executive director of Commercial Alert, a nonprofit consumer group which wrote to the Federal Trade Commission to complain about the practice back in October 2005.

“There is a legal issue: shills should disclose that they are shills. But there is also a social issue because it is a commercialization of human relationships and an assault on social trust in our society,” Ruskin believes.

When the FTC responded in late 2006, it said in essence that word-of-mouth advertising was already covered under FTC regulations about commercial endorsements and did not warrant any new regulations. However, the agency agreed that there was indeed a problem if the relationship between the marketer and the “sponsored consumer” was not disclosed.

The FTC has promised to investigate and go after violators on a case-by-case basis. As a matter of policy, FTC spokesperson Jackie Dizdul would not say if investigations were currently under way.

The Word-of-Mouth Marketing Association, a trade association created in 2004, draws a line between objectionable stealth marketing and legitimate buzz marketing. “The main difference is disclosure. If you don’t disclose the relationship, it is stealth marketing,” said a staffer at the association’s headquarters in Chicago. Its web site offers a checklist of questions to identify and prevent stealth marketing.

“According to a survey in Inc. Magazine, 82% of Inc. 500 companies declare that they use word-of-mouth marketing. One of our goals is to start research to get figures about this field and how much money it generates,” added the WOMMA staffer.

Less than two weeks after the FTC published its response, PayPerPost announced it was stepping up its disclosure policies. PayPerPost is a marketplace that connects marketers with bloggers who agree to speak about products or services for a fee. While word-of-mouth marketing takes place both offline and online, the Internet is giving “sponsored consumers” an even greater reach.

One can easily see why marketers are so taken by word-of-mouth marketing: influential consumers become powerful spokespeople and salespeople. But if the link between the marketer and “sponsored consumer” is not revealed, trust and credibility are in danger.

Gary Ruskin is now lobbying to get the issue in front of the new Congress. “Congress should hold hearings on this practice because, even with disclosure, it causes social damage,” he insists.

Isabelle Boucq for Atelier