Interesting exchange during SXSW between Craig Newmark and Jimmy Wales:
'...communities like Craigslist and Wikipedia depend entirely on the general trustworthiness of their users, despite occasional problems. And despite constant growth, those communities are becoming more trustworthy, not less, though they require constant vigilance, Newmark said.
"This wisdom of crowds thing--it may be a cliche, but it's mostly true," Newmark said. "What we're talking about here is a democracy, and it works, but you have to be careful before it gets out of control."'
'One interesting moment came when Wales asked Newmark about his theory that TiVo can become a tool for saving democracy.
Newmark replied that one of the biggest problems in recent American history is elected officials' never-ending fundraising in order to pay for expensive television campaign ads. And therein lies TiVo's opportunity to save democracy, he explained.
"The miracle of DVRs, not just TiVo, is that you can skip through commercials, and in my fantasy life...if everyone started skipping political commercials, that would defeat their purpose, and that would be a good thing," Newmark said. "Then politicians would have to say more. That's what I feel in my own little fantasy world. I do feel it's everyone's patriotic duty to skip commercials, at least political commercials, and I feel it's the DVR manufacturers' patriotic duty to make a 30-second skip easier for everyone." '
I think he just doesn't like political commercials. I can sympathize.