We’re officially on the tech map: Craigslist will launch in Boise – Buy, sell and trade on this site, or find a job

Boise, Craig has been watching you.

And he thinks you’re just about sophisticated enough to handle his Web site — a freewheeling online garage sale, job site and gabfest that has achieved worldwide notoriety for its "no-rules" postings.

Julie Howard
The Idaho Statesman

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040722/NEWS02/407220348

Craigslist, online at http://www.craigslist.org, will launch its Boise site before the end of the year, according to San Francisco-based founder Craig Newmark.

That means Treasure Valley residents will be able to log on to the free site and find a dedicated Web page filled with other local people buying, selling or trading items.

"When Craigslist makes it to a community, that means there’s a critical mass of tech-savvy and wired folks in town," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit research center studying the social effects of the Internet on Americans.

Rainie said the site’s appearance in a region is an indicator that residents are using the "new tools of information technology."

According to Newmark, Internet users look at the site nearly 1 billion times a month.

The site makes money by charging employers in the Bay Area a fee for posting jobs. Newmark said Craigslist will start charging employers in New York and Los Angeles in the coming months, but all other sites allow free job postings.

There’s lots more on Craigslist than jobs.

On the barter site, one person seeks to acquire a bicycle in trade for massages. Someone else will give you a tattoo in trade for an Xbox.

You also can find everything from vacation rentals to baby clothes to romance — even carpooling partners — on Craigslist. In the "activity partner" area, people were looking for others with whom to play chess, go snowboarding in New Zealand and study for the Graduate Record Exam.

Jefferson Jewell, founder of Boise tech firm Blackfin Technology, was happy to hear that one of his favorite Web sites was opening the door on the Treasure Valley.

"This is definitely a step forward for Boise, both symbolically and literally," said Jewell, who is also president of Kickstand, a local entrepreneur’s club. "It’s really an indication that Idaho has a vibrant and growing community of people who are involved in technology-related industries. For many people in technology, this will put Boise on the map."

Started in San Francisco in 1995, Craigslist now has Web site pages for numerous U.S. cities, plus London and several cities in Canada. Newmark, a self-proclaimed nerd, said the site initially was a way for him to find out about social events, and then share the information with others.

"Yeah, all that stuff you read about me being a nerd, that’s no exaggeration," said Newmark, 51, adding that his social life has improved considerably since those days.

A specific day or month hasn’t been set for the Boise Web page launch because, well, a lack of structure is how Craigslist works best, explains Newmark.

"It’ll be later on this year," he said, adding that new cities are added based on "a bunch of requests" coming from an area. "The site is being built and when the moment feels right, we’ll launch it. We’re not much for business plans or things like that. A lot of businesses try to be scientific, and that works sometimes. We go more on intuition."

There aren’t rules for what users can post on the site, and that means content can range to the X-rated. Craigslist users are the censors, with the ability to "flag" postings that are considered objectionable. If an item receives enough flags, it is automatically deleted from the site.

"People do all sorts of wacky things," said Newmark, who says nothing that pops up surprises him. "That’s the way humans work."

But he is tickled at some posts.

"My favorite is when someone was on there looking to hire someone else to take the CPA ethics test for them," he said with a laugh.