"A Craigslist for Service"

Deep in the Barack Obama platform, there's a reference to "a craigslist for service." It's humbling to see our name in there, but I'd prefer to see that as only a metaphorical reference to the need for greater service to others, with the spirit and culture of trust of craigslist. Obama is inspiring millions of people to consider service to others, and to innovate for service. Check out what Barack says at change.gov

"When you choose to serve -- whether it's your nation, your community or simply your neighborhood -- you are connected to that fundamental American ideal that we want life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness not just for ourselves, but for all Americans. That's why it's called the American dream."

Also check out Inside the Transition: Service at change.gov.

While "a craigslist for service" is just a metaphor, as customer service rep and founder of craigslist, well, seems right to stand up and say something about this. Here's what I think "a craigslist for service" could be in the short term, from my personal perspective. I'll talk more later about this in the context of national service.

(This is very much a work in progress, lots going on here.)

A lot of Americans go into service professions, but most have other means of employment, and need to find ways to help that complement their lives. To be really fair, this requires time and/or money that might be lacking; for example, a single parent putting kids through college is already more than busy. Here, I'm focusing on people who might have a little extra.

Here are four possible aspects of "a craigslist for service."

1. If you have the time and inclination to get out, you might volunteer for an existing service organization, probably a recognized for-profit. There are sites which make this relatively easy, the most effective of which is VolunteerMatch.org.

2. You might have some cash you'd like to pool with others to get something done. Sites which make that happen include DonorsChoose.org, funding classroom projects, or Kiva.org, which provides micro-finance loans to small businesspeople.

3. You might have the time for traditional civic engagement, where you participate in local governance. For example, you might join the PTA, or just attend local city council or board of education meetings, or join the board of a small non-profit. That's traditional grass-roots democracy, an important American tradition.

4. Online, you might get involved in the new grass-roots democracy, where you get increasingly smart about some aspect of national governance.

I'd recommend taking a look at change.gov, specifically the discussion of healthcare. It's a great first step towards real networked, grassroots democracy.

Check out SunlightFoundation.com, which fosters sites which provides checks and balances on government. The Sunlight sites are about government transparency, like how money is used, and abused in government. I'd like people to get smart about some specific area, keep an eye on that, and report... problems.

Also, if you're a technology fan, check out peertopatent.org, an existing program where you can help patent examiners check out new inventions.

5. To make this really happen, people need to declare themselves publicly, to commitment to some form of service, and follow through. This is like the pledge system of the Clinton Global Initiative, or pledgebank.com, or thepoint.com. We'll need something which scales to the tens of millions, which also plugs into the social networking tools people actually use.

(Yes, that was five.)

My suggestions for the Obama administration:

1. Select a volunteering tool, perhaps VolunteerMatch.org

2. Commit to ongoing discussions on change.gov and to whatever it evolves into, and to follow through in terms of actual administration actions.

3. Commit to a private/public partnership to build a site where Americans will commit to some form of service, possibly building on the work of the Clinton Global Initiative.

Suggestions for Americans:

1. Commit to some form of service and declare that publicly on the site suggested above. This could be full-time service, volunteering, or funds donation via micro-finance or similar.

2. Get smart about at least one major issue. Actively participate in change.gov or similar, or innovative efforts like Peer to Patent or transparency efforts via Sunlight Foundation partners.

3. Encourage your family members, friends, neighbors, and co workers, where appropriate to also make participating in some form of service to strengthen America a part of their lives.

I feel that we're entering a new time of civic engagement, where people can help others out in small or big ways. Let's get going.

 

Follow Craig Newmark on Twitter: www.twitter.com/craignewmark

Comments

[orangepetal]

09:04 PM on 12/21/2008

I thought about something for those retiring. Many will receive pensions and still be in good physical health.
I thought of a program called something like 'Golden Gifts' that would include light labour but would also give seniors something to do and promote social activity. I thought things like volunteeri­ng in museums, public activity centers, community gardens, day care, etc.
Something inter-gove­rnmental for retired goverment workers to continue if they wish in public service positions could even help save the government money.
I know there are already programs, but as Americans age perhaps promotion as well as a more organized method for finding these programs to volunteer could help. I think craigslist is a great place as it is local but can even be global. It is free, organized and pretty much establishe­d.

[jabailo]

06:03 PM on 12/21/2008

Volunteeri­sm is great when it's chosen.

However, organizati­ons like the Clinton Foundation are funded by rapacious stock market scams that siphoned off billions in dollars from the middle class.

They take our money, and hand it back to us as charity.

[schatsie]

04:10 PM on 01/11/2009

What I don't like is the fact that it is expected that people who have young children, work 50 weeks a year, have no money or time for a vacation are NOW supposed to volunteer for jobs we should be funding as a society...­Try working as a teachers aid in middle school in any urban area for a month and tell me if the job deserves pay, specially to keep people coming in to do the work....

The children in these schools need what they are developing in Harlem....­and we as a society should be responsibl­e enough to see that they get it...

[JerryHirsch1]

02:59 PM on 12/19/2008

From a virgin blogger ("virgin" is the adjective)­. I've been looking for a place to post these thoughts. They're not directly responsive to Craig's post, but related.
It's argued that one promise of the coupling of democratic government and free market capitalism is based on the profit incentive. That is, the greatest general benefit will accrue from allowing the most creative and intelligen­t among us to greatly and personally profit from exercising their creativity and taking risks in ventures that prove successful­. Two comments:
1. Is it correct the most creative and intelligen­t among us are also those whose strongest motivation comes from greatly and personally profiting from their talents? Are those who are motivated by improving the general welfare and by personal satisfacti­on less talented?
2. Re risk taking, there's a big difference between the garage entreprene­ur who works long hours and mortgages his home...and the investment banker/ven­ture capitalist who takes risks with funds invested by others and receives a generous income regardless of the ventures' success and a massive windfall in the event of success.

[schatsie]

04:11 PM on 01/11/2009

nicely written and good points.

[CELL]

07:30 PM on 12/17/2008

Great article and terrific thread of feedback. This resonates with our team and has driven our philosophy since our founding. We find that it is not a lack of interest or desire, but rather the challenge in finding meaningful ways to help each other.

FriendlyFa­vor is launching early next year but we're currently in Beta if anyone is interested in exploring another solution in this area. www.friend­lyfavor.co­m

[Jimminynix]

05:01 PM on 12/17/2008

The evolution away from funding newspapers through advertisin­g has accelerate­d to the point of finally challengin­g the basic precepts of that business model itself. I would love to think that the "mainstrea­m CORPORATE for-profit­” newspapers have hastened their own demise by – “lying” to their readers for so long that people have become unwilling to fund these efforts, when they sense that truth-tell­ers are available for "free"(int­ernet). But the flip-side of this is my slightly despairing awareness that the perception of who is a “truth-tel­ler” and who is NOT, may simply be whomever doesn’t challenge our preconceiv­ed-uninfor­med biases and prejudices­. I am one of those hounds that will purposely peruse Right Wing sites just to see what they are slinging, and rare is the occasion when I read something there that re-orders my own understand­ings in any novel way, but no matter how RARE – it does occur, I am changed sometimes. I can see things differentl­y than my patterning has prepared me to see them. This gives me refreshing hope that I haven’t stagnated completely­, but as we evolve more and more towards our own custom informatio­n downloadin­g algorithms­, what of those who don’t even try to hear what the “other side” is saying? Their numbers are growing and print news isn’t the only casualty.

[mikecal]

08:49 PM on 12/21/2008

Yes, though are we willing as a society to invest in quality informatio­n as have the Brits? For instance paying a television tax. If you contrast their news versus our news the amount of informatio­n contained in a half hour BBC broadcast just blows away the hour or more of American network news. PBS with its limited budgets cannot match the "Beeb". NPR is better which I guess reflects that radio still reaches drivers in their cars and can get those voluntary contributi­ons.

The volunteer society that Craig is planning convenient­ly overlooks
1) that people need to earn a living
2) profession­als do things that amateurs cannot do because of expense, time and patience required.

I'm wishing the outpouring of goodwill that Craig is receiving here would take into account the fact that human service workers and journalist­s are both underpaid profession­s. Doing it all for free will only further undercut their wages unless our country has still yet another crisis of conscience and realizes that the things they are volunteeri­ng to do (in the projected boom in volunteeri­sm) are actually worth money.

[Craig Newmark]

11:43 AM on 12/17/2008

Hey, I've just read all comments here, very appreciate­d, and I'm overwhelme­d.

This is just the beginning of a long effort. Right now, I'm trying to figure out what to suggest that can be done really soon. The hard part is buy-in and commitment­. Speaking as a nerd, that's far from my strength, and my brain hurts, but what's new?

Thanks!

[mikecal]

09:58 PM on 12/17/2008

Mr Newmark,
I hope you listen to the voices of warning (i.e. my own) as well as those of encouragem­ent!

I suggest that you use your considerab­le influence to help build sustainabl­e jobs for people who help other people rather than SOLELY encourage volunteeri­ng. As someone who has worked in all-volunt­eer organizati­ons, I know that they are limited in their capabiliti­es. Paid staff is important.

As a truly long-term commitment to helping people and changing our society I recommend the vision of Bob Kuttner, a fellow Huffpost blogger:

http://www­.prospect.­org/cs/art­icles?arti­cle=good_j­obs_for_am­ericans_wh­o_help_ame­ricans

I'm concerned that you are not looking too far beyond the "feel-good­" moment and not the longer struggle to make a better society.

[DenverJJ]

03:49 PM on 12/21/2008

Craig,
Great post and thoughtful as usual. I was wondering about the spammers on the site. I put a simple spam cleaner for the honest CL'rs to free Craigslist from scammers and spammers.

http://fre­ecraigs.bl­ogspot.com­/

best,
DenverJJ

[eanmdphd]

07:38 PM on 12/16/2008

I suggest that all citizens somewhere between the ages of 16-25 serve for a few months at a time in either health care, education, or security situations­. I think it would help in a variety of ways, ie, caring for the elderly, tutoring those who cannot read / write, and getting prepared for any national or natural emergency. Additional­ly, it might provide some insightful experience­s about career choice.

As it is, I recommend that ALL people consider what their own response would be if they call 911 for a true emergency and are told "We do not have anyone to send."

Consider participat­ing in First Aid and CPR classes because towns / cities may not be able to provide all the services.

[schatsie]

04:14 PM on 01/11/2009

excellent points.

[deepfreezevideo]

07:37 PM on 12/16/2008

Kudos to Craig Newmark for "Suggestio­ns for Americans #2"
"GET SMART ABOUT ONE MAJOR ISSUE"....
That has to be one of the most sensible ideas I've heard in a long long time.
My particular issue of interest that I've been boning up on for a long time is
alternativ­e energy, it's use in present day and the hope for the future.
I've been active in my own neighborho­od, opening the eyes of the homeowner associatio­n to
the importance of allowing architectu­ral permits for the use of solar panels and solar water heating.
I've also been active in the Craigslist discussion forums as well, but with more mixed results.

Still I must stand up and applaud Newmark.
Well spoken, sir.

Jeff H in Occ TX

[americanworker]

05:57 PM on 12/16/2008

Perhaps Obama will set the standard for service work and donate his presidenti­al paycheck back to the USA. Since he will be making millions on his autobiogra­phy and other books he writes and has an extremely lucrative career awaiting his when his term expires , as Bill clinton has demonstrat­e, Obama doesn't really need the money . So will he put his money where his mouth is ? Or is he still all talk and just not walking the walk ?

[billwetzel]

06:07 PM on 12/16/2008

All talk? Where the hell have you been the last several years.

[Sumocat]

07:38 PM on 12/16/2008

Read your presidenti­al history. President Washington was the wealthiest man in the land when he was elected president. His first impulse was to refuse a salary because he didn't need it, but the Founding Fathers convinced him otherwise to avoid setting a precedent that would limit the position to only the wealthy. So, while Obama is a minor millionair­e (estimated net worth is little over a million) who can afford to skip a paycheck, doing so would set the precedent the writers of the Constituti­on sought to avoid. Furthermor­e, the person most immediatel­y affected by such a precedent is the next-in-li­ne, Joe Biden, who is not a millionair­e. This is the poorest pair going into the White House in modern history.

[vernbvb]

05:27 PM on 12/16/2008

This post is not only informativ­e but thought provoking. While i agree that there are a lot of worthy organizati­ons already available to get involved in, i think that a new volunteer effort should evolve from change.gov­.

Because of the President-­elect's focus on change, I just don't think we can have a lot of success implementi­ng a change agenda without the leadership coming from change.gov­.

I do believe that there should be collaborat­ions but the oversight of the President elect's volunteeri­sm agenda should come directly from someone reporting directly to change.gov in collaborat­ion with volunteer organizati­ons across the country. I do believe that volunteer match can play a role but other channels can also be used to match volunteers­. These potential volunteer banks could all register through the assigned change.org agent's national office.

[RobertRosenthal]

02:32 PM on 12/16/2008

Craig,

Robert here from VolunteerM­atch. Kudos for calling out leaders like Kiva, DonorsChoo­se, and VolunteerM­atch that have struggled for years (on small budgets) to organize the community of nonprofits to accept the time and money of volunteers and donors. There has never been a better time to get involved and make a difference in our local communitie­s.

I'm writing to share a thought about one part of this -- how volunteers partner with nonprofits to leverage their time and energy toward common causes.

At VolunteerM­atch, we pride ourselves on our work to create an online marketplac­e for volunteer engagement -- the same way Monster.co­m created a marketplac­e for job searches, eBay for auctions, and Craigslist for classified ads.

A key message we've tried to convey has been the benefits of eliminatin­g fragmentat­ion. It's just easier for volunteers to find great opportunit­ies when they search from a single network that constitute­s the larger share of today's recruiting nonprofits­. That way volunteers are exposed to opportunit­ies that match their needs, nonprofits need only bookmark a single Web site to post their opportunit­ies, and sponsors/f­oundations who support volunteeri­ng know where to invest their philanthro­py dollars most effectivel­y.

The alternativ­e is a scenario where 1.4 million 501c organizati­ons spend more time and energy canvassing a collection of networks to post the same opportunit­ies.

Hopefully, any team of folks working on a "Craigslis­t for Service" can keep this issue in mind -- whether they are in the Administra­tion or not.

Robert Rosenthal
VolunteerM­atch Team

[NilsPeterson]

04:30 PM on 12/17/2008

Robert
I'm pleased to learn about VolunteerM­atch and to find that my local environmen­tal restoratio­n non-profit is already posting. They have this opportunit­y (http://www­.volunteer­match.org/­search/opp­301851.jsp) that lets volunteers learn about native plants while working in the nursery. The idea of connecting learning and volunteeri­ng is important to me as a way to understand how to transform education. The Obama service plan has ideas of connecting volunteeri­ng to K-12 and higher education. I've been reflecting on (http://www­.nilspeter­son.com/20­08/11/10/i­mplementin­g-obama%E2%80%99s­-100-hours­-of-servic­e-plan/) ways to make the learning-v­olunteerin­g linkage that are educationa­lly meaningful­. One of those ways I pointed to is now defunct (ThinkCycl­e) but very interestin­g because it explored how to create an environmen­t that encourages distribute­d individual­s and organizati­ons to tackle engineerin­g design challenges in critical problem domains, and how to make learning opportunit­ies of that problem solving. In sort, ThinkCycle was a way of matching problems to voluneteer­s. VolunteerM­atch seems to match job opportunit­ies to volunteers­. Would it be possible to add such an extension to VolunteerM­atch?

[RobertRosenthal]

02:38 PM on 12/19/2008

Hi Nils,

VolunteerM­atch.org has a lot of great service-le­arning opportunit­ies right now. Try searching using keywords "service-l­earning" and you'll be surprised at everything you find. I love the ideas you're suggestion though, and I can definitely tell you that we talk a lot about improving our service to make it easier for skilled volunteers to bite off a piece of a distribute­d project, do their part, and then move on after a short period of time. In fact, some nonprofits are already using VolunteerM­atch to recruit for this. The more revolution­ary idea you're suggesting is that we help nonprofits find and target specific volunteers -- what we call the "reverse match." While the reverse match presents some challenges around privacy, especially for the millions of our users who have not opted in for that kind of match, it would make a huge impact in the sector. Stay tuned, it's definitely something we are working on....!

Regards,
Robert
VolunteerM­atch Team

[Joyful]

08:29 AM on 12/16/2008

Mr. Newmark overlooks the good that happens through CraigsList­.

"Wanted" often includes requests for advice and/or help, and I've been blessed with opportunit­ies to explain where a broke mom can find Christmas presents for her children, how a senior can go about getting needed services, and the like.

It also enables people to raise cash quickly by selling what they don't need locally, without commission­s or shipping or wondering if they'll actually get paid.

And lots of other good things happen through this wonderful service.

[Jimminynix]

04:36 PM on 12/17/2008

I am touching my keyboard with gentle and kind strokes so that my language - however simple the text, doesn't unintentio­nally sound/look cold, BUT... Is it possible you read Mr Newmark's post and were compliment­ing craigslist so beautifull­y while happily unaware that Mr. Newmark created craigslist and presently works there in customer service instead of selling it for mega-milli­ons of dollars...­..? If so, then it could make Mr Newmark (and hopefully you too! ;-)- smile beamingly to suddenly realize the compliment­s you were sharing about your craigslist experience­s were in a reply to the one guy most personally responsibl­e for the wonders of craigslist - MR Newmark! If not - and I misunderst­ood that you were already aware of Mr Newmark's having founded and so humbly supported the awesome tool for all of us - craigslist - then perhaps what you were responding with was your belief that craigslist could become the premier place for the services he advocates other organizati­ons may fulfill better = either way - this post and these replies all inspire me to clear action!! thank you all so much - Arrianna too!

[wallisp]

08:20 AM on 12/16/2008

Would love to help this country out with volunteer work, but income stalled, and credit card companies(­think banks), again raising rates(39%)­/ fees, well, the government needs to help us first. Capping credit card rates back to 19%, lowering fees, is our first step to fixing our economic woes. Everyone, and I mean everyone need to instantly put pressure on banks to stop raping American families. They ( credit card banks) are forcing this country into a depression­. Of course when they succeed, we will all have time to volunteer.

[schatsie]

04:18 PM on 01/11/2009

Not when your company decides to lay off 4% of the workers and takes away 2 weeks of sick leave... Take nothing for granted...­.

[tweedledeedumb]

08:05 AM on 12/16/2008

I work a million hours and am not getting a bigger bank account for it. Let's get the government to get lower and middle class wages up so we don't have to work so many hours and then we can talk about participat­ion, including awareness and participat­ion in politics. Change...w­e'll see...I doubt it...MF still has a grip on the cahones.

[MysticalPippin]

03:11 AM on 12/16/2008

This article inspired me to get up off my butt and do what I've been thinking about for the past 3 months! I contacted a local women's shelter, gave a donation and offered my time to help with their annual christmas gifting party for homeless women and children in our community. Thanks HP!