Photo by David Sifry (yes, that Dave Sifry) on Flickr. Some rights reserved.
Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who has long had philanthropic aspirations, has put his money into creating the first endowed chair of new media at the University of California at Berkeley.
Craigslist has put $1.6m behind the new post at the Berkeley Center for New Media, which, along with $3.1m from another foundation, will support research and lectures that "explore the powerful effect of new media on culture and think rigorously about how new media will continue to change our lives and perceptions", according to the UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau.
Newmark has long bemused the news industry by seemingly pinching their readers but not being that bothered about making money out of the whole thing. The Berkeley chair, you could say, is putting his money where his mouth is. Newmark has his fingers in many pies, not least the social news project Daylife.com.
"My unifying theme is that I want to save the world but I'm too lazy, so I'm getting people who are smarter and more energetic to do it for me," he told me last autumn.
Source: UC Berkeley News
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