Blog Entry #9

Facebook Part 1

The book “The Facebook Effect,” by David Kirkpatrick has so far been the most enjoyable book we have read. For this blog entry I will examine the first one hundred and six pages in which Kirkpatrick defines the history of Facebook. He begins with the story of Oscar Morales, who created a Facebook group titled “Un Million de Voces Contra Las Farc” in order to protest against the Columbian Communist Geurilla organization. Through his page, Oscar managed to rally 12 million people all in favor of protesting the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia. After relating this story to the positive attributes of Thefacbook, Kirkpatrick then introduces the man behind the wand, Mark Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg, while studying at Harvard University, gathered a group of people with similar desires of creating a Social Network that would appeal to a large number of people.

Zuckerberg and his roommates designed Thefacebook as a means for students, and other members of Harvard University, to use in order to contact and reach out to others at the University. Kirkpatrick explains the lack of acceptance that was experienced by the boys as they created this networking device. Not only did people think it would not be successful, but they also seemed to view it as a waste of time. Zuckerberg, and partners, continued to pursue their goals of the project. “Making Thefacebook fun was more important than making it a business,” (pg. 33). This statement by Zuckerberg is one that went against many of the things in which people criticized him for. As the project was looked at as amateur and a waste of time, Zuckerberg and his partners did not focus on the amount of revenue they were bringing in, but paid closer attention to the certain elements and features of the page that would make it successful.

The first part of his book, Kirkpatrick also describes what Zuckerberg’s intentions of Thefacebook were. As he proves that his intentions were not rooted in making money, but rather creating a page that would appeal to many students and be of frequent use to them. The early Internet software, ‘Course Match,’ was created as way for students to choose classes by seeing what students were already registered in them. This area stood out to me as I felt that it somewhat related to my life. Through this book I have noticed, after studying at Rutgers University for four years, that some tools and applications that you use very frequently, such as scheduling classes, choosing professors, and deciding which campus to take a class on based on their peer’s opinions, the person behind the idea of those pages is connected back to Mark Zuckerberg and the boys that supported his thoughts at Harvard University. After attracting much attention simply through course registration and reaching out to other Ivy League schools. It became a more intimate source of connection in which students used for various reasons such as study groups, meetings, parties, and other social events. The first section of David Kirkpatrick’s book “The Facebook Effect,” has gotten me very excited to read the rest of what he has wrote about the history and development of Facebook.