Tod Cohen, eBay

[eBay is the main sponsor of this event.] eBay tries to live by simple values: Most people are good, etc.

In the 3rd quarter, there were 348M listings. The total goods and services traded in the 3rd Q was $3.8B. The largest category by values is automobiles, $10.7B. 54% of the business is in the US. 12M registered users in Germany. There are 56M PayPal members. 2.4B feedback comments.

The question for the panel: What can politics learn from business with regard to the Net?

Esther Dyson

[She’s on the MeetUp board and was chair of ICANN.] “You learn from mistakes, and I learned a huge amount at ICANN.”

A lot of the utopian stuff you hear on line — “We’re going to create a global village” — is implausible, to put it politely.

In business, you can get rid of the customers you don’t like. You don’t need to follow due process beyond staying within the law. Government can’t do that. That’s why government is so ponderous and slow. The Dean and Kerry campaigns failed to enlarge the market; they were talking to themselves and they weren’t listening. In politics, you want someone with convictions and courage, but who listens so s/he can explain her/his views more effectively. the Net needs to be used more as a listening tool.

Debora Spar, Harvard Business School

The bubble taught us that the Net didn’t suspend the law of gravity. You need to have a business plan that involves selling stuff. “And I suspect the same is true in politics: Yes, there are many things we can do differently, but we haven’t suspended the basic laws of human interaction.”

Conclusions for politics: Don’t forget the basics. And what are the ways of putting together communities of interest? And business and politics are different: Business is about controlling info and politics is about disseminating info.

Esther: eBay is political. It changes how people view themselves in relationship to institutions. When you see yourself empowered in one sphere, you see it in other spheres.

[The fact that we can use the same “models” to discuss politics and business should, IMO, be taken as a sign of despair and deep cynicism.]

Jonathan Zuck, Association for Competitive Technology

“I don’t care about politics.” Politics is a little bit ridiculous if it’s taken as an end unto itself. He’s a sw developer. In politics you have a three-legged stool: voters, money, and substance. In that order.

Businesses can take on a life of their own. Look at Craigslist.org. And now it’s happening in politics. But, if people see the promise not coming to fruition, they may recede back into their Barcaloungers.

Craig Newmark, Craigslist.org

[He’s introduced as “customer service representative and founder.”]

I grew up with a pocket protector. I’m going to ignore the topic of a business plan or model because we have neither. Experience and instinct are more reliable. Craig supports “nerd values.”

“What’s working for us is that we seem to be run by a moral compass. We’re trying to do what’s right for people based initially on our own values, but the community pretty much drives us. For example, when we were thinking about charging, we asked the community what we should charge for, and they said charge people who otherwise would be paying for the service. We’re not pious about this.”

This is one of the most uncomfortable things I’ve ever said but the Golden Rule is really what people want from businesses and politics. Nothing fancy, just being fair, trying to level the playing field, and treating every one with respect. I’ve never said this before but we try to be righteous.

I spend most of my time doing customer service. Maybe that’s the equivalent of government service. This is dull as dirt. How does this apply to politics? There’s a lot of talk about moral values. There’s something real there. People want to be treated fairly. Work hard, play fair and you’ll get ahead. But in politics, people can be scammed by the talk. A lesson we learn from customer service is to genuinely engage with people all the time.

[I’m a huge fan of Craig and what he’s built, or, more exactly, what he’s enabled to arise.]

Q: Is the Net culture value free?

Esther: It fosters openness. Reputation systems find the bad apples and lead the rest to behave better.

Craig: People are eager to behave well.

Jonathan: People are basically passive. They’ll go online and just read. [Jarvis is shaking his head a few rows ahead of me.]

Esther: Governments should generally keep their hands off. Peer-to-peer governance is better.

Q: (Ina Steiner, AuctionBytes): What can governments learn from companies like eBay?

Jonathan: The entrenched middleman is the main barrier to ecommerce. I’m not that interested in having politics learn from business, but maybe the lesson is: You entrenched middlemen? Your jobs are at risk, too. Let’s hope they get displaced from politics.

Esther: A lot of governance mechanisms will come from outside the government, so we have to build an ecosystem of things that work together. And don’t rely on the authorities for everything.

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