Was the movie screenplay The Social Network using this book as its blueprint because it mirrors it almost exactly? Or maybe it's because I saw the movie and I have the pictures so fresh in my mind. David Kirkpatrick seems to have unlimited access to Mark Zuckerberg and his machinations to create Thefacebook, and shows how a computer savvy yet socially awkward young man can create one of the world's highest valued and influential websites without having the goal of being a multimillionaire can happen.
The journey of how it begins is chronicled from the bowels of the Harvard dorm room to the formation of a real company requiring real financing. It also goes more in depth than the movie about the business end and how leveraging stock options gave them the money to explode the site so it wouldn't crash and fail. What was interesting was that they were able to pitch their idea to hardened businessmen and have them competing for the opportunity to be financial backers in a then still unproven site. Although they had began the march across the college campuses of the country, there was no proof that it could make money. It was also interesting that Zuckerberg did not make Thefacebook his only focus and split his time on a website called Wirehog. Although it caused dissention in the ranks, Zuckerberg doggedly pursued the idea of Wirehog, but didn't let it take his mind away from Thefacebook enough to cause it to be any less successful. "Facebook seemed to be thriving, but Zuckerberg was thinking about Wirehog almost as much."(98) Parker, who was as influential as he could be, couldn't understand why he was hedging his bets and not totally believing in facebook but went along with it. This belief in Zuckerberg that had businessmen and partners on the same side proved itself to be correct.
But what I really liked about the book so far is that it begins with what impact facebook can have on real world events. Though it is most well known as a way for people to communicate with their "friends", it also has definitive impact on what common citizens can do to make real change on their governments. This is illustrated in the story of Oscar Morales and his frustration with how the Columbian government were handling the guerrilla group FARC. By using facebook to coordinate a demonstration against FARC, regardless of the potential danger to himself, he informed and educated many that normally wouldn't get involved in something they felt they had little voice against. "He expected 50,000 to show up. In fact, 300,000 did, about 15% of the city's population.(5) He showed the best side of what facebook is and proved to the world that it is to be taken seriously as a networking tool that can change lives and determine new events. These types of spontaneous involvement in a normally ambivalent society reinforces the idea that Zuckerberg's creation that intimacy through the web can facilitate "efficient communication and cultivate familiarity" (12) is one to reckon with and is here to stay. Through the expansion from the original college students who were allowed to use the site to all populations, facebook reaches across barriers normally not easily overcome; generational, cultural, lingual and political affiliations. This site is indispensable in most people's lives today and will continue to grow. This will change American culture today and in days to come.
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