On Monday, November 21st, 2008, Craigslist founder Craig Newmark joined host Paula Marantz Cohen, distinguished professor of English and school-mate from years past, and about 200 students, staff and faculty in the Mitchell Auditorium in the Edmund D. Bossone Enterprise Research Center.

Newmark launched Craigslist in 1995. The idea started as an event list (literally, Craig's List) for lesser-known art and technological meetings and events. It was an email list Newmark maintained while living in San Francisco.

When the list became too big for the restraints of the email program Newmark was using, it became a website. Newmark wondered whether to name the website something other than "Craig's List," which was what the emails had been called.

"I built a brand by accident," Newmark said. "People said to keep it 'Craig's List.'"

And so the giant, Craigslist.com, was born. Newmark, who freely admitted he had no design skills, wanted to keep the site simple and fast, and to keep the level of trust he had with the community members who used it, which meant he refused to put ads on the website.

To keep the tone from getting too technological or complicated, Cohen and Newmark reminisced about their high school antics. In his high school days, Newmark was kicked off computers for overuse and told stories of FORTRAN 2.0, an archaic programming language, and punch cards, while the auditorium full of engineers laughed and nodded their heads appreciatively.

Today, Newmark has been named one of the "Most Influential People in the World Today" by Time Magazine.  After the interview, Cohen opened the floor up to questions, and audience members lined up to ask Newmark's opinion on a wide range of topics, from national technological policies the government should be concerned with to Craigslist's alleged destruction of the newspaper industry.

Craigslist serves 14.6 million visitors per month from 108 cities in 52 countries, and most of these posters are allowed to post for free; everyone is able to browse for free. These staggering statistics make it no wonder that Craigslist is such intense competition for newspapers and magazines, whose personal ads once made up a significant portion of their incomes.

However, Newmark emphasized his customer service role in the company and the way the community marks spam and flags inappropriate posts. He admitted that he didn't know as much as he should about the technical aspects running the website, but that he was frustrated with and more focused on providing the level of satisfaction he wanted to the community.

"I want to treat people how I'd like to be treated," Newmark said.

While Newmark said there was no possibility of a partnership between Craigslist and Google, and said Craigslist would not be taken public, he was interested in the idea of taking on a Drexel co-op, much to the delight of the audience.

Newmark's visit was hosted by the College of Arts & Sciences, the Lebow College of Business, the College of Information Science and Technology and the Pennoni Honors College.