Live Coverage - Town Hall with Bill Cobb (5/31/07)

Hello all.  I'll be posting pictures throughout the Town Hall...so get that finger ready for rapid refreshing of your browser.  If you want to listen in to the live event go to eBay.com/townhall.

Town Hall MC Griff

"Using Research to Maximize your Profits" Workshop

Are your eBay sales needing a boost? Not sure which listing features will work best for a specific item? No worries - you can use research to gain a better sense of direction and an indication of which features will improve your sales. Reviewing what works and what doesn't for similar items can provide you with the necessary information you need to market your listings effectively.

Join Sara and Denise from Terapeak Marketplace Research on Friday, June 1 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time for the Using Research to Maximize your Profits workshop to learn how research can help you improve your eBay sales. Here's Sara and Denise with an overview of tomorrow's workshop.

Getting Ready for DevCon in Boston: Entrepreneurs Make the World a Better Place

What is the environmental or social cost of doing business? With one innovative idea, entrepreneurs can improve the lives of millions of people.

"Making the world a better place doesn't have to be something you do after you ran a business for a while. It's something you're doing while you're running a business."

--Pierre Omidyar, eBay Founder and Chairman of the Board

Pierre will be a featured speaker at this year's eBay Developers Conference 2007 in Boston. (Register today!) In this clip from the 2006 conference, Pierre shares his philosophy on how businesses like yours can make the world a better place.

"Entrepreneurs who may be the greatest force for good on the planet."

--Scott Cook, Founder of Intuit

In this clip from his conversation with Pierre, Scott (a member of eBay's board) follows with two stories that illustrate the power of entrepreneurs.

I get really inspired watching these clips - can't wait for this year. Enjoy, and I'll see you in Boston!

- Delyn

Help Needed with Webby Acceptance Speech

If you didn’t see my last post, the eBay Community is being presented with a Webby Award in June. The Webbys are an annual award ceremony honoring the best of the internet – and there’s almost nothing better on the web than the eBay Community! Even shopping for my favorite antique rugs falls short, and that’s saying a lot.

The problem is that we need your help with the acceptance speech. Meg (our CEO) will be accepting the award on the Community’s behalf, but as part of Webby tradition, the speech can only be 5 words long. If you’ve heard any of us here at eBay talk, you know we can’t limit ourselves to that, so we’re looking for your ideas. After all, it’s your award!

We’ve gotten some great suggestions already on our Chatter discussion board, and we’re looking for more. Go ahead and post to this thread if you have any ideas.

Congratulations again – you truly deserve it!

Meg teams with Shrek & Donkey for Charity!

It is likely that the latest "Pirates" installment (At Worlds End) will rule the box office seas this weekend, but until the final reporting is in, the reigning beast of the multiplex is Shrek the Third.  Keep that in mind when you are checking out the headliner of Meg Whitman's Give Fest listings: limited edition Shrek and Donkey dolls. 

Give Fest is an eBay employee event that's been going on this month encouraging everyone who works here to sell items for charity, and Meg certainly didn't want to be left out of the fun.  Not only is she listing autographed copies of The Perfect Store, assorted eBay collectibles, clothing, and personal items to go along with the special Shrek and Donkey dolls...but she has even tested out embedded video in her listing!  If you didn't read Jim Ambach's announcement, we recently changed our policies to allow this type of video, and she uses it effectively. That Shrek doll is way bigger (as you can see in the video) than I thought it was. Her listings will benefit Resource Area for Teaching (RAFT) - the same place that Ninad and Jeff volunteered at last year.

The World's Fastest Furniture

It's often said that you can get almost anything on eBay, and if this isn't proof, I don't know what is. As you may have seen on Engadget or a variety of other blogs, Marek Turowski recently used eBay on his way to setting a new speed record - while driving a sofa!

He won a charity auction on our UK site for the right to drive the souped-up couch - appropriately sponsored by sofa.com - and a chance at claiming the Fastest Furniture title in the Guiness Book of World Records for himself. When the uber-unique ride hit 92 miles per hour, he had done it (the old record was 87 mph). It's a good thing he broke it on the first try too, because he described the ride as "terrifying." No word on whether he sprung for the extended warranty or rustproof undercoating.

The video below sums up the experience nicely.

UA and Privacy Changes -- Some Q&A

As many of you now know, eBay is making some changes to our Privacy and User Agreements.

Earlier this week, Scott Shipman -- an old-timer here at eBay, and one of our top privacy lawyers -- sent an electronic letter to all registered members, notifying them of the changes.  This letter -- which I learned will take an incredible three weeks to reach the entire Community due to our very large customer-base -- has prompted a number of questions from the Community. 

Privacy and security are important issues for all of us, and we thought it was important to hear from our legal team about the concerns our members have expressed.  Scott was more than willing to share more detail about the changes, and what they mean -- and don't mean -- for our members. 

First, for those of you who may not have received the message yet, here is what it says:

Dear (eBay member User Id),

I'm writing to let you know that the eBay User Agreement and eBay Privacy Policy have been updated, effective immediately for users registering as of May 16, 2007, and on July 9, 2007, for current users.

The rules and dispute resolution policies you originally agreed to in the User Agreement have not changed in any substantive way. We've made some changes to this agreement to make sure our legal documents are consistent with the ways our sites and services are evolving and to better meet the needs of our user community. You'll notice some changes to our "Content License" and "Abusing eBay" sections to that effect.

The new Privacy Policy, like the old one, outlines the broad categories of information we collect from you, how we use this information, and what your options are with respect to the information we collect. You'll notice a few changes to the policy, which we've made to cover new programs and site safety projects we're putting in place.

* Combating Fraud. We're increasing our efforts to combat fraud on the site with a variety of programs. For example, we've made some changes that allow us to address "Ask a Question" and "My Messages" spam and other malicious activities using our message systems. And we're making sure our disclosures about cooperating with law enforcement allow us to respond to increasingly sophisticated fraudsters and criminals.

* Streamlining Services. We've heard your comments about how many steps it takes to complete a transaction or get customer support where multiple eBay companies are involved. So we've made some changes that will allow our Customer Support team to help you with questions that span our companies. And we're streamlining your use of the services provided by members of the eBay corporate family, so your experience across the eBay Inc. platform will be as seamless as we can make it. Some of our new programs also mean you'll see eBay services and content in a lot of places (not just on the site), so we've made some changes to reflect that.

* Customizing Your eBay Experience. We're rolling out programs and working with partners that help make our sites and services, and some of the ads you see on the web, more relevant and useful to you. Naturally, because we're a transparent community, we'll identify the new ads served with this program and provide you with choices about them. Beginning in July, we'll make a new preference available in My eBay--named AdChoice--that lets you tell us whether you want us to use the information we have about you to customize the ads you see. You'll be able to sign in and change your advertising preferences in My eBay at any time. You'll also notice links on the ads we serve this way, so you'll know an ad is served with the new program and be able to set your preferences right from the ad.

We hope you'll agree that these changes will make the eBay sites and services work better for you. If you accept the new User Agreement and Privacy Policy, you don't need to take any action. If you do not wish to accept the new User Agreement or Privacy Policy, please refer to our Help pages for instructions on how to close your account.

Thank you for using eBay and we look forward to many more successful transactions!

Sincerely,

Scott Shipman
Senior Counsel, Global Privacy Practices
eBay Inc.

Here are some of the most common questions we've seen from members across the community forums and in email, along with Scott's answers:

 

Member Question: Why does the notice tell me to close my account?

Scott: We certainly do not want you to close your account!  Actually, this is standard legal language we have used in the past. In fairness to you, we need to make sure you know about these changes and agree to them when you continue using the site.  If you continue to keep an account active after the effective date (July 9 for existing users), that will be acceptance of the new terms -- that’s what the language about accepting the changes was designed to address.  If you do not agree to these new terms, your way of indicating that you disagree is to close your account. 

 

We’ve made the changes to our policies so that we can provide some new and exciting programs that will help make eBay better, safer and easier to use. We always provide the eBay services subject to our user agreement and privacy policy. Keep in mind, though, that some of the policy changes tell you about the new preference we’re making available. You don’t need to close your account if you don’t want to participate; you can just change your preference in My eBay!

 

Member Question: What is AdChoice? Am I going to get a lot of ads or spam?

Scott: Privacy is all about providing you choices with the processing of your personal information. AdChoice allows you to choose whether or not you want ads customized to your interests. I’m aware that some people are not all that excited about the on-site ads. Whether there are ads on the site or not is outside my domain, but I can help by making them more relevant to you.

 

I think you’ll appreciate the new, more relevant ads when they start to appear on the site. But if you don’t want them customized, there will be a preference available where you can tell us so (without closing your account!). If you opt out or not, you’ll see the same amount of ads, in the same places (on the site or eBay ads on other sites) where you see them now, but we won’t customize them to your interests if you tell us not to. It’s not about spam, or bombarding you with ads, it’s about making the content we provide, including advertising, more interesting and relevant to all our users, and thus making the site better for everyone.

 

Member Question: Does AdChoice mean you’re sharing my personal information with other companies?

Scott: We'll be working with our partners who provide advertising on the site, but we won’t share your personally identifiable information (like contact or financial information) with those partners. We’ll send them only some anonymous data that helps them select which ads to show.

 

Member Question: Why did you change the Content License?

Scott: We did not change the content license. In fact, the content license has not changed materially since it was originally drafted in 1998.

 

We received a number of comments from members suggesting that they were confused by the parenthetical example that followed the content license language. (The parenthetical example did not even exist in earlier versions of the content license). 

 

So, in this latest revision, we removed the language to reduce confusion and to clarify that, as eBay grows and develops, we may broadly use site content, including user content, to enhance and improve our business and the website user experience. Importantly, the content license does not limit your ownership of your content. You do not give up your ownership rights, and you remain free to use and commercialize your content however you choose. (For example, you may choose to publish and sell a book containing all of the reviews you have posted on eBay). At the same time, when you post content on eBay, you give eBay a license to use that content through a variety of means to benefit you, the eBay community, and eBay's business.  For example, this license allows us to display listings and drive traffic to the site to increase the salability of items.

 

Here is a redline of this section showing the change to the prior content license, so you can see the parenthetical language which we removed:

 

When you give us content, you grant us a non-exclusive, worldwide, perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, sublicensable (through multiple tiers) right to exercise the copyright, publicity, and database rights (but no other rights) you have in the content, in any media known now or in the future. (We need these rights to host and display your content.)

 

Member Question: Does the new Content License mean that you can sell my personal information to other companies?

 

Scott: No. Our privacy policy continues to apply to the personal information we have. We’ve made a promise not to sell or rent your personal information to third parties for their own marketing purposes without your consent, and this new content license doesn’t change that.

 

******************

 

Thanks for these answers, Scott --  And readers, if you have more questions or other topics, let us know by emailing chatterblog@ebay.com

eBay Celebrates in Lumberton - Our Community Counts Winner

Hey there - I'm a bit jet-lagged here still, but who minds a little lack of sleep after partying it up?

Last week I traveled back East to the town of Lumberton, New Jersey, who was the winner of our Community Counts promotion we held in November, 2006. I was part of the crew that threw all the eBay registered members of the town a big celebration to honor them and say thank you for being the most active Community on eBay. 

As background, for 3 weeks last November we held the Community Counts contest where members earned points for their local communities (based on each member's registered ZIP Code) each time they were active buying, selling, using the Community Forums, or taking part in eBay Giving Works.  We then balanced out the points on a per capita basis so that everyone had a fair chance to win.  We wanted to give the tiniest town in Kansas the very same chance to win as New York City.  To illustrate - Lumberton, who has 3,012 registered members, finished with a score of 234,580. Compare that to San Jose, eBay's hometown, which boasts 27,246 members but only tallied 1,277 points. 

Hundreds of Lumberton-based eBay members ventured out with their families to their local park to attend the celebration with us.  We provided a yummy dinner, and everyone sat down to eat while enjoying a performance from the local high school jazz band. 

Following the dinner and music, Gary Briggs, our Chief Marketing Officer (he's the guy who does our marketing updates), officially declared Lumberton the winner of the Community Counts promotion, and bestowed a big thank you and congratulations upon Lumberton's Mayor, Patrick Delany. In return, the Mayor had a cool gift for Gary. Since a simple key to the city was was too "bricks and mortar and not hip enough" for eBay, he gave Gary a "Smart Card to the City." That was hilarious (and awfully clever).

Next, Gary honored the unsung hero in Lumberton - Kathy Pfeiffer, their postmaster.  She's been the Lumberton Postmaster for ZIP code 08084 since 1993, so she and her team are "very familiar with eBay packages that come and go from the post office daily." 

Finally, it was time for the big money to appear. As part of the promotion, we had pledged to donate $10,000 to the charity of Lumberton's choice. It was with a lot of pride that Gary was able to hand over the money to the Burlington County Animal Alliance. 

From my point of view, everyone seemed to have a great time. The casual atmosphere helped everyone feel comfortable, and to enjoy talking with their neighbors and the close to 40 staff members from eBay and PayPal who traveled to throw the big bash! 

Now I just need to readjust back to the West Coast time zone...

"How to Compete in a Crowded Market" Workshop

Many eBay sellers ask how they can optimize their sales before and after they find a product to sell on eBay. Using multiple sourcing techniques is a key factor when maximizing your profit margins. Once you identify a product that sells well within your market, having renewable sources through a variety of methods puts you a step above the competition.

Please join Colette Marshall, Business Development Manager for Product Sourcing Experts WorldwideBrands.com, on Tuesday, May 22 at 11:00 a.m. Pacific time for the How to Compete in a Crowded Market Using Multiple Product Sourcing Techniques workshop. During the workshop, Colette will show you how to use different Product Sourcing techniques to gain a competitive edge in any marketplace, and earn the highest profit margins possible. Here's Colette to tell you a bit more about tomorrow's workshop.

Making a Difference in Uganda - and For Nonprofits Too

Meet Roman Garcia. Roman is one of the stars of our eBay Giving Works team, helping our Community buy and sell to support nonprofits. He recently shared a fantastic story with us about his friend's organization that helps villagers in Uganda. Not only was he able to directly help the cause, but his story shows just how easy it is to get nonprofits involved with eBay Giving Works so that they can expand their reach and benefit from eBay sales. It's a great example of how someone can make a difference, even if they don't have much to buy and sell themselves. Take it away Roman....

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I openly express to anyone within earshot that I have the best job at eBay (no offense Meg). I work with thousands of nonprofits, companies with hearts, and the occasional celebrity. And the one thing in common they all have is that they use eBay Giving Works.

Despite my daily proclamations of "best job ever", funny enough, one of my friends didn't even know what I did at eBay! So Gwen (the friend, and not Stefani who's doing her own charity auctions) one day asked if I'd donate some clothes for an upcoming trip to Uganda. 

I wasn't sure why she was going to Uganda, so I asked, "So Gwen, why Uganda?"

"Uganda is home to many homeless and parentless children ravaged by AIDS and civil wars. My nonprofit, Asayo's Wish, focuses on one specific village."

Already with a lump in my throat, I asked her what was needed from me.

"Honestly, they need so much that a little is a lot to them. Our goal is to someday make things different than what is the norm in Uganda, and this village. Children sleep 40 to a small room; they line up 300 at a time for food and water. Preventable illnesses that seem insignificant to us are life-threatening to them".

After Gwen's answers, I decided to rally the troops to get some clothes. Without much trouble, I got eBay hats and shirts donated from groups in Salt Lake City and San Jose. But in all the excitement I forgot for a second what I did at eBay! So I explained to her about the eBay Giving Works program and how we partner with MissionFish to help nonprofits similar to Asayo's Wish.

Her response was, "Do you have to be a big nonprofit to participate?" And I said NO! That's the best part about this program. You can be the Red Cross or a small nonprofit in  Salt Lake City like Asayo's Wish! The program is designed to support any size organization, and we do so equally.

Three weeks later Gwen came back with these incredible pictures, and I have never been more proud about the company I work for! Asayo's Wish will soon be joining over 10,000 other nonprofits that are part of eBay Giving Works. Their goal is to raise money through direct and community selling, so they can return to Uganda to start building new living quarters for over 300 children.

I plan to list some items to benefit them once they've been added to our directory, and I'd encourage you to join me! Or even better, I encourage you to find a nonprofit you support and tell them how easy it is to join. You can even recommend the nonprofit directly to MissionFish at http://www.missionfish.org/NPMMF/npregrecommend1.jsp.

It's a great (and relatively simple) way to make a difference.

Check Out the eBay To Go Widget

In case you haven't already read the news on Scobleizer or TechCrunch, we recently launched a slick Flash-based widget named eBay To Go (Philipp Justus just mentioned it in today's announcement as well). It takes about 20 seconds to create your own custom widget for your blog or personal webpage. This widget is built on eBay Web Services, the same open platform of API calls for interacting with eBay that we make available to our eBay developer community.

My favorite is the search widget, where you can add a widget to your blog or site that displays all the items for sale on eBay by keyword. Here is the widget for "pez dispensers":

Make sure you check out the video podcast of Stephen Chang from eBay's Buyer Engagement team giving a demo to Robert Scoble for his Podtech show. It is a nice tour of the features and functionality of eBay To Go. Looking good, Stephen! :-)

Who Needs the Prom When You Have eBay!

It was Spring of 2004.  I had just moved from PayPal over to eBay and all around the office everyone was buzzing about some hilarious guy who was selling his ex-wife's wedding dress on eBay. 

Almost exactly 3 years later I find myself drawn to a similarly interesting listing that's a testament to the trials and tribulations of relationships.  This time the seller is a high school freshman (using her mom's account ... with permission and assistance - I checked ).  The recent victim of a pre-prom breakup found herself in need of some extra cash (after shelling out money for her prom gear she could no longer use) and turned to eBay to try to recoup some of her funds - and rid herself of some bad boyfriend memories at the same time. The guy's heart was cold, but your head won't be if you like her item! Check out the listing for her complete story.

"Out For Blood" with eBay Execs

No, our executives aren't involved with filming for the next Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. But they are donating their personal time to help with the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's "Out For Blood" fundraising. For those of you who aren't familiar with them, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the world's largest voluntary organization dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services. You may also know them from their wildly popular (at least around here) Team in Training, which helps people get ready for endurance events like marathons, triathlons, etc., while raising funds for the cause.

Through tomorrow, you can bid on several cool packages from our execs, such as playing golf in Menlo Park with John Donahoe, President of eBay Marketplaces, or at Pebble Beach with Gary Briggs, our Chief Marketing Officer.  If hitting the links isn't your thing, check out the listing where Rajiv Dutta, President of PayPal, will treat you to lunch and a tour of PayPal's headquarters. Or maybe you'd just rather hang out with Griff - have dinner with him at eBay Live! in Boston and get interviewed live on eBay Radio. They hope you, too, are Out For Blood.

And The Name of eBay's Own Band Playing at eBay Live! Is...

Wow! What a phenomenal response to my blog post asking you to guess the name of eBay's own band playing at eBay Live! Over the last weekend, we had more than 550 responses on the Chatter Blog discussion thread - way to go, folks.

Without further ado, let me reveal the correct answer. If you haven't guessed already from the band's picture here, their new name is: Twisted Lister.

There were clues galore in my original blog post (see below for details), so it wasn't surprising that many people posting to the thread guessed right. In fact, the very first response out the gate from member pioneerep was correct.

Congratulations to the first 5 members who posted the correct answer - we'll be sending out your prizes shortly! Here they are:

• pioneerep (check out this former bike racer's cool About Me page)
• pukmis
• bengc (hey, you were at eBay Live! last year! Hope to see you this year at eBay Live! in Boston. You'll get to meet the band!)
• vencie1 (visit their About Me page)
• insani-tees2007 (she's a T-shirt seller herself, so hopefully she'll also like her Twisted Lister T-shirt).

We're also giving out two special prizes:

• madw45 for the funniest band name that unfortunately wasn't correct: "Bid Vicious"
• naughtynana1 for cracking my favorite clue in the blog post -- she was the first to figure out that an oddly constructed sentence in the blog post was actually a clue. "And one of the weirdest tilts to unscramble in this story is why Domenic Paolo, the band's lead vocalist is considering changing his name to Dee Sniper."  She was the first to unscramble "weirdest tilts" to get Twisted Lister.

For those of you who want to know what all the other clues were, here you go:

• "pun on a famous band's name and an eBay activity" -- an obvious reference to Twisted Sister and Turbo Lister, eBay's popular bulk listing tool.
• References to Twisted Sister songs/albums -- "We're not going to take it," "Bad boys of rock 'n' roll," "Come out and play," and "You can't stop rock 'n' roll." Also, Dee Sniper and A.J. VeRO were names conjured up in homage to Dee Snider and A.J. Pero, real-life Twisted Sister band members.

A huge Thank You to all of you who participated! Hope you guys had as much fun playing this game as we had creating it!

Don't miss watching Twisted Lister perform at the Keynote Address at eBay Live! in Boston. And if you swing by the Community Lounge, you'll be able to meet some of the band members in person (I'll post more details about their schedule later on).

Member Spotlight: moms_million_dollar_closet

Hello again, and welcome to our latest installment of the New Member Spotlight.  For our special Mother's Day spotlight I'm excited to share this great story from a member whose mom recently received an amazing and unexpected gift.

Don't forget...we want to hear your stories too. Remember, it can be anything from a uniquely interesting item you sold, to how eBay has led to a dramatic change in your life. You can submit your stories directly to chatterblog@ebay.com (team), ryank@ebay.com (me), or on our dedicated discussion board thread. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our RSS Feed, so you can get updates each time a new post goes up.

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My Mom's Amazing Surprise
by itemsr4sale

Hi Guys, I just wanted to tell you a heart warming story about my mom Kathy  (moms_million_dollar_closet) and a buyer from Richmond, Virginia. Here is the story:

My mom had this really nice vintage 1920's cocktail ring that she was selling. She had listed it twice and no one made her reserve, so she listed it a 3rd time and said in the first line of the description that the "3rd time is the charm". She had it listed for a starting bid of $400.00, with a Buy-It-Now of $450.00. The woman from Richmond had seen the description, and sent my mom a message. She said that she usually does not do things like this and had no intention of telling my mom what to do - but she pointed out that maybe my mom wasn't meant to sell it and instead asked if she should keep it since it is a family heirloom. My mom responded back and told her that money was just so tight that she had no choice but to sell it and give it a new home. The ring used to belong to her grandmother, and my mom had previously used it as collateral for money borrowed from family members - when she paid them back, she got her ring back. Unfortunately she currently has no family to ask for help other then me.

The next morning the woman in Virginia bought the ring from my mom for the Buy-It-Now price of $450.00 and paid for it right away through PayPal. She then sent my mom a message along with it stating, "after hearing your story and the reason why you are selling it, I have brought your ring for the buy-it-now price BUT DO NOT SEND THE RING TO ME!!! Use the money to get yourself caught up and best of luck in the future..."

I never saw my mom cry as much as she did that day. She went out and brought this really nice Angel statue named "New Beginnings" and wrote a sweet heartfelt letter to the woman (since she had her address from the transaction) as a thank you for sending her the money and letting her keep the ring.

eBay is not just a place to buy great things at great prices, and come across hard-to-find items. It is a godsend to my mother. It helped her angel find her and give her hope and let her know that people do care out there.

Thanks for your time and reading my story about how eBay made my mom’s day and helped her angel find her.

Robert Scoble (and the Blogosphere) on eBay Innovation

Those familiar with the blogging world already know Robert Scoble. If you don't, he's one of the foremost technical bloggers in the world, forging a reputation for openness while with Microsoft (learn more on his Wikipedia page).

We recently invited him in for our Demo Expo, an internal contest where employees came up with all sorts of new innovations for eBay. Most of the demos are still top secret (shhh!), but he was able to pick his 4 favorites and make a video about each one. He posted those to his scobleizer blog a few days ago, so definitely check them out.

Use Firefox? Try the Companion for eBay

If you use Mozilla's Firefox browser, they're looking for your help! Last week they released an eBay-related add-on called the Firefox Companion for eBay that lets users keep an eye on their eBay activity. To quickly summarize, it keeps you signed in so you can check on all your bids, listings, etc., it lets you know when you've been outbid, and also has anti-phishing programs to alert you if you're going to use your eBay login info to sign into a fake eBay page.

The whole thing is in Beta right now, and they're looking for feedback on how to make it better. If you use Firefox to cruise around eBay, read this short article on appscout to learn more.

From the Silk Road to eBay - Teaching About Global Trade

Last night our local Bay Area ABC affiliate ran a very cool segment about Patricia Moses, a teacher from nearby Fairfield who was giving her 7th and 8th graders a lesson on global trade. In a nutshell, she was using eBay to illustrate how the concept has evolved from ancient times to now. As she put it, "I teach World History and US History, and this is a real world connection to trade...For the last five years eBay has been at the hub of what I teach about - this is a place where people get what they want."

But it didn't stop there. After finding out about her lessons, our very own Gary Dillabough hosted her class for a tour of our corporate headquarters in San Jose. ABC 7 sent a reporter to tag along as well, and they showed the resulting video last night. To check it out, visit ABC 7's site here, and look for the video on the right. You might need to do it quickly though - I'm not sure how long the video will be available.

And the CODiE goes to...

Adam Trachtenberg of the eBay Developers Program recently posted about "the CODiE experience". (Yes, that's the silver award on Adam's desk bookshelf, in between the Masterview, RASCI the mongoose and the eBay apple).

---

I’m proud to announce that eBay won a CODiE award for Corporate Achievement from the Software & Information Industry Association. This is like winning the Oscar for Best Picture, except that there are fewer celebrities at the awards gala, and you don’t need to worry about Harvey Weinstein.

The Corporate Achievement award is final award presented, and is given to the “corporation that enhances the overall development of the software and information industry.” Not surprisingly, competition was fierce.

Eighteen different companies made it to the second round of judging (most other categories have only four to six), and we were up against many industry leaders, including Amazon Web services, IBM, Red Hat, and Salesforce.com.

However, thanks to all the great work done by so many people, we were able to bring home the prize.

I had a fun time at the event, and it was a blast hearing “eBay!” called out from the podium, going up on stage, and accepting the award on behalf of eBay’s buyers, sellers, and developers. Thanks!

Cool Prizes For Guessing the Name of eBay's Own Band Playing at eBay Live!

Meet Bryan Wright, Steve Corral, Steve Slater, Brandon Jones, and Domenic Paolo. eBay employees by day, musicians by night. Rock stars in both roles.

As part of eBay's own employee band, these guys are honing their musical act for eBay Live! 2007 in Boston (June 14th-16th). They'll be the opening act for another star turn – the much awaited Keynote Address at eBay Live!, when Meg Whitman, Bill Cobb, and other execs outline plans for the future.

Well, eBay's bad boys of rock 'n' roll have a new name for their band and we want you to guess what it is. There are clues galore in this blog post – you just have to find them, and post your answers to this thread on the Chatter Blog discussion board. Long-time eBay Live! fans, if you guess Negative Feedback, we're not going to take it – they have a new twist now.

Here's another clue – the name is a pun on a famous band's name and an eBay activity. If you change one word of the band's two-word name, you'll get one of eBay's most popular products/features. And one of the weirdest tilts to unscramble in this story is why Domenic Paolo, the band's lead vocalist is considering changing his name to Dee Sniper. For that matter, why is drummer Steve Slater thinking of changing his name to A.J. VeRO? Guitarists Bryan Wright and Steve Corral, and bassist Brandon Jones aren't telling!

Cool prizes!
There are cool prizes to be won, so come out and play. The first 5 members who post the correct answer on the discussion thread will each win a T-shirt with the band's name and logo – autographed by the band members! We'll also send them a bunch of eBay "swag" – including a medallion celebrating the eBay Community, eBay pins, an eBay pen, eBay mouse pads and more! And if you're coming to eBay Live! in Boston, we'll make sure you get to meet the band members in person!

Note: We'll go by the time-stamp on each individual post to figure out the first five correct answers. We'll give out the correct answers on the Chatter Blog probably in about a week – or as soon as we have all five of our prize winners. Which shouldn't take long, I think, because, just as you can't stop rock 'n' roll, you can't stop our members when it comes to being creative!

eBay's Proactive Approach Emphasized in Rob Chesnut's Trust and Safety Town Hall

If you saw Ryan's pictures from Monday's Trust and Safety Town Hall with Rob Chesnut, you know that Rob's team was out in force to answer questions from members. Although a technical glitch delayed the start of the Town Hall by a few minutes, a lot of ground was covered during the event, with Rob and his team responding to many questions that came in over the phone or via email.

In his opening remarks, Bill Cobb, President of eBay North America, framed eBay's revamped strategy towards Trust and Safety in the context of "taking a much more proactive approach." He said that the eBay Community may notice a new "aggressiveness" to our TnS approach, mentioning several recent projects like Safeguarding Member IDs, and the recent announcement that some new listings will not be made viewable for a few hours to give us more time to check them for potential fraud-related problems.

Bill noted that eBay had resisted these types of moves in the past, because of the impact that they may have had on the Community. "We don't like holding back information or reducing the visibility of a listing on the site any more than our members do."

So why are we doing these changes now? "The internet has simply changed in the last 11 years," Bill explained. Paraphrasing from my notes, Bill also explained that, "As internet technology has evolved, helping millions more people around the world to connect and transact online, the scammers, unfortunately have followed the trail. And what's more, they, too, have become more sophisticated in their methods and technologies."