Category: Outlets – BBC

BBC NEWS — July 31 — Many schools have already banned social network sites. The Deleting Online Predators Act tries to limit the access paedophiles have to social networking sites primarily at schools and libraries. The act has already been approved by a large majority in the House of Representatives on 26 July. Critics say the act is too broad and could mean a huge number of websites are cut off from users.  MySpace, Bebo, Facebook, Friendster and many others count large numbers of children among their users. The DOPA Act leaves the final definition of what counts as a social networking site to the FCC.  Some MySpace users have created an online 'Save your Space' petition and aims to gather more than one million signatures in a month. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

Mark Brooks: Too little, too late. MySpace has been laying low on this subject. Looks like the 'head in the sand' approach didn't work. Constant press attention has morphed into political attention and now into legislation that looks like it will pass. I was surprised the new MySpace Chief Safety Officer didn't show up at the recent San Francisco Internet Dating Convention that was focused on background checks and safety. This bill is getting ramrodded through to the Senate and is a political hot potato.  Child safety…who's going to vote against that? What repercussions will the rest of the online personals industry need to deal with in the coming years? Online personals safety is now front forward and on the minds of a lot of politicians. I can see this political attention manifesting. The State Attorney Generals will be on the prowl next. DOPA will be useful only in the short term (3-5 years). Kids use cell phones. Cell phones have internet access. Will cell phones be blocked next? Hey, check out helio.com for MySpace enabled sexy cell phones. MySpace has already circumnavigated school and library computers. FULL TEXT OF BILL

BBC NEWS — Jan 13 — Craigslist now has "well over three billion page views" per month Craig says, which makes it the seventh biggest presence on the internet. His almost anti-profit business employs just 19 people, and is still based in a San Francisco living room. Craigslist is a real and reciprocal online community that is "just trying to give people a break" across the 190 cities it serves. Craigslist  nets around $20m a year by charging for job postings in three cities. eBay managed to buy 25% of the company in 2004, when a former employee unilaterally decided to sell his shares. Craig says the unexpected relationship has been beneficial so far. "We try to be driven by the values of the people who use us," he said. With a portion of each site given over to dating, "erotic services" and "casual encounters", it is not hard to see for example, why only Istanbul has joined the Craigslist ranks from the Islamic world. FULL ARTICLE @ BBC NEWS

Mark Brooks: Craigslist because looks and feels like a cool guy doing us all a favor.  It is!  I had lunch with Craig in 1999 and pitched an early version of Plaxo.  In 2000 he almost bit on a deal with Hypermatch a small online dating site I was working with…the only stipulations, we were not to make money from advertising or charge membership dues.  Um, then what?  It didn't happen and Hypermatch was sold to EZBoard.  Other companies I've advised have pitched Jim Buckmaster (CEO) and Craig since then, to no avail.  I've not bugged Craig for a while now.  The last time I saw Craig it was simply to buy him a cup of coffee and thank him for helping me grow my little club http://www.ace-club.com by relisting events on his events calendar.  Craigslist is a great site and public service.  The shear utility, utter integrity, humility and lack of commercial agenda is at the core of it's success.