mark zuckerberg

David Bowie Would be Proud of Facebook

By Mark Evans in Social Media No Comments Tags: ,

In David Bowie’s “Changes”, he sang that he didn’t want to be “a richer man” but was “Just gonna have to be a different man” – a song that seems to epitomize Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook.

There’s a tsunami of coverage that analyzes, dissects and explains the changes unveiled by Facebook at its annual f8 conference yesterday but what strikes me as the most interesting angle is Facebook’s willingness to keep changing and evolving.

Like a kid so jacked up on candy they can’t sit still, Facebook has little interest in maintaining the status quo. Everything within the organization seems to be a constant state of flux as Facebook looks to reposition itself strategically and tactically to maintain its competitive advantage.

Maybe Facebook reflects Zuckerberg’s personality that combines brilliance, creativity and paranoia. Maybe change is what keeps Facebook so vibrant, dominant and seemingly impervious to competitive threats.

However you want to explain it, one thing that’s clear is how Facebook doesn’t seem too fussed about whether these changes are enthusiastically embraced by its 700 million users.

There always seems to be squawking about the changes but Facebook just shrugs them off as part of the process. It’s like a parent making a decision their child doesn’t like in the short-term based on the confidence it’s the best thing for the child in the long-term.

The thing about the technology world is change is constant. To keep consumers engaged, competitors at bay, and encourage new sales, a core part of the technology landscape is new features, upgrades and refreshes. To stay still in technology is akin to a death sentence.

Facebook, however, has taken change to a completely different level. To Facebook, change is not only constant but a frenetic activity that appears to be gaining more momentum the bigger Facebook becomes. It’s like Facebook wants to keep its army of developers happy so it lets them go to town with new features.

From the outside looking in, it’s fascinating but, at the same time, it feels like Facebook constantly takes two steps forward and one step back.

What do think? How do you explain Facebook’s willingness to changes it stripes?

More Control from Facebook. Really!

By Mark Evans in Social Media No Comments Tags: , , ,

So, Facebook has some introduced some new tools so you can have better control over how and with whom you share information, as well as a bunch of other goodies.

There’s plenty of other places dissecting the nitty-gritty of Facebook’s announcement but what is perhaps most interesting is how Facebook continues to wrestle with the public-private issue. On one hand, it wants more of its users information to be public so more page can display advertising. Facebook’s advertising business is based on volume, volume and more volume given many clients use a pay-per-click formula.

On the other hand, Facebook has continued to get slapped for trying to make more user information public, which is well deserved for ill-advised moves such as making some personal controls public as the default. It has also forced users to opt out of new features as Places.

What makes today’s announcement intriguing is how Facebook has been forced to continually address the privacy thing. For whatever reason, it just can’t seem to get it right. Maybe it has to do with Mark Zuckerberg’s belief that total transparency is a good thing so why would anyone want to make anything private. The only problem is that not everyone is ready for total transparency – at least not yet.

Maybe Facebook’s new controls will address some of the concerns about the company’s approach to privacy. Maybe it will mean that I won’t be forced to check my privacy setting on a regular basis just to make sure Facebook hasn’t been fiddling around with my settings as part of a “new and improved” privacy policy.

Still, this is probably not the last time we’ll hear about “new controls” from Facebook. Count on it.

Book Review: A Breathless Inside Look at Facebook

By Mark Evans in Social Media 2 Comments Tags: , , , ,

I didn’t think I was going to like David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect, which proclaims itself to be a book that delivers the inside story about the company “connecting the world”.

And for the first 75 pages, my expectations were realized, but I carried on because there were other options at the cottage other than voluminous The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The biggest challenge reading The Facebook Effect is how breathlessly bullish it is about Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Kirkpatrick is a veteran business reporter but it is obvious that he was caught up in Facebook’s growth and Zuckerberg’s youthful charm.

Part of Kirkpatrick’s problem is the access he was granted by Zuckerberg – something few reporters have received. While this provides an opportunity to get tremendous insight, it also creates the danger of starting to feel part of the club – particularly when you are dealing with people you like.

And while Facebook is a tremendous story, Kirkpatrick frequently steps over the line with comments that make it difficult to believe he’s a hard-nosed business reporter as opposed to Zuckerberg’s biographer.

That said, The Facebook Effect offers some fascinating insight, even for people who are familiar with the company and Zuckerberg. In particular, the accounts of Facebook’s early days are interesting as the company quickly evolves from just another one of Zuckerberg’s software projects to a fast-growing service taking university campuses by storm.

Given the lawsuits over the years about Facebook’s ownership, Kirkpatrick also offers good details about the people involved in Facebook’s early days, and how Zuckerberg reached out to people close to him at Harvard. Although Zuckerberg’s youthful has always been in the spotlight, it’s still striking how young all of the early employees are – we’re talking about people who can’t even legally drink.

The behind-the-scenes stories about the key role that Sean Parker played in evolving Facebook puts a new light on how Facebook, in many ways, was extremely lucky in the early days at a time when there was plenty of competitors from players such as Friendster and MySpace. A smart but volatile character, Parker’s biggest contribution is helping Facebook raise venture capital, and creating an ownership structure that has provided Zuckerberg with ultimate control over the company.

While Kirkpatrick does cover Facebook’s missteps (e.g. Beacon), he goes overboard in recounting how Facebook was able to quickly overcome many of these mistakes. As well, his treatment of Zuckerberg is extremely sympathetic as he is painted as a visionary who has a masterplan for Facebook to take ove the world. Zuckerberg also gets lavish credit for the success Facebook enjoys for new features such as photos and the Wall.

All in all, The Facebook Effect provides some solid insight into the story of how Facebook skyrocketed from dorm room project to global phenomena. The overall tone is far too gushing and reverential but there’s enough in it to give people with an interest in Facebook some valuable information.

More: Here’s Michael Arrington’s review of The Facebook Effect, which is describes as “wonderfully biased”.

Does Facebook Need a Leadership Change?

By Mark Evans in Social Media 7 Comments Tags: , , ,

It should not come as any surprise that Facebook has made some changes to how its privacy policies given the backlash to its everything-is-now-public announcement at the F8 conference.

In response, Facebook has introduced "simpler and more powerful controls for sharing personal information." The idea is that Facebook's confusing and ever-changing private setting are now easier to use, which should appease the politicians and critics who caused such a fuss.
 
Before anyone gets too excited, it is important to keep in mind that Facebook's philosophical approach to making more information public as opposed to private still seems to be intact. To boost traffic and generate more traffic, Facebook needs more of its content to be public as opposed to hidden for friends and family only. 
 
By extending an olive branch – easier, user-friendly privacy settings – Facebook has only conceded that the previous privacy settings weren't easy or user-friendly.
 
It's a smart public relations gesture but it's also important to recognize Facebook is counting on the fact most people don't think too much of their privacy, or don't bother tweaking their privacy settings.
 
The other interesting issue is why Facebook has a history of making aggressive strategic moves, and then having to take a step back after the proverbial crap hits the fan.
 
The controversy about the much-criticized Beacon should have given Facebook a playbook what not to do, yet the latest privacy fiasco seems to suggest it didn't learn anything. 
 
This may have to do with Facebook's strategic brilliance of taking two steps forward and one step back, or an organization that despite its size is still immature.
 
The problems with the new privacy policy raise the idea about whether there's a senior leadership issue. As much as Mark Zuckerberg has overseen tremendous growth, it may be time for Facebook to consider some senior management changes.
 
For more, check out Zuckerberg's post on the Facebook blog.

Facebook’s Zuckerberg: “Sorry, My Bad”

By Mark Evans in Social Media 1 Comment Tags: , , ,

Like anyone should be surprised but Facebook is sorry – really, really sorry – that it caused such a fuss by changing its privacy policies so dramatically recently.

But after “listening to recent concerns”, Facebook is “responding” with plans to add “privacy controls that are much simpler”, as well as making it easy to turn off all third-party services. And Facebook has published the “principles” under which it operates.

Zuckerberg cleared the air in an op-ed in the Washington Post. It’s a public “my bad”, which demonstrates that Facebook took notice of the critics raging against its plan to make pretty much everything public on Facebook.

And although Facebook is still the monster of social networks with more than 450 million users, it also had to acknowledge that there was growing interest and media coverage in other social networks such as Diadora and even Facebook.

But make no mistake: what Facebook has pulled off is a classic two steps forward, one step back move. In appearing as if it’s backing away from its new policies, Facebook is hoping to stave off the privacy critics. The reality, however, is Facebook’s still making more of your information public as it attempts to generate more revenue and traffic.

It is also important to remember that Facebook isn’t backing away from its new public approach at all. Instead, it’s making it less confusing to change your privacy settings if, in fact, you go to the trouble of changing them. The sad reality is many people aren’t that concerned about their privacy on Facebook even though they should be.

For more, check out the wave of coverage on Techmeme, including this story in The Atlantic.

Facebook May Be Evil But….

By Mark Evans in Social Media 9 Comments Tags: , , , ,

Since introducing the privacy-killing Graph API recently, Facebook has been under the gun. In addition to the concerns about its disdain for privacy, there’s also been growing chatter about people leaving the social networking service, as well as suggestions that MySpace or start-ups (Diaspora, anyone?) may have discovered a chink in Facebook’s armour.

But as Business Insider makes clear, the harsh reality is Facebook isn’t going anywhere. The company is too big, too aggressive and far too popular to see it pull a Friendster (and everyone remembers how Friendster was the king of the social networking world at one time, right?).

Facebook may be the elephant in the room but it’s a gigantic elephant. As much as the digital elite may be wailing away at Facebook’s hubris and that of its youthful CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, most Facebook users get far too much value and utility from Facebook to consider using something else.

It’s like shopping at Wal-Mart, and then being told you need to find another retailer because Wal-Mart buys products from Chinese factories that pay their workers $1/hour. It be unfair and wrong but consumers have a habit of ignoring the facts if it means have to change their behaviour.

At the end of the day, Facebook will probably get its act together by appeasing the privacy advocates with some policy changes. It will be a classic two steps forward, one step back strategic move. This will still let Facebook make its data more available, while allowing the privacy people to claim victory over Goliath.

If you’re concerned about Facebook but don’t want to delete your account, consider the following:

1. Spend some time looking at your privacy settings, particularly the “Applications and Web Sites” section, which includes the innocuous sounding “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”.

This program lets Web sites such as CNN.com and Yelp.com personalize their sites based on your Facebook information. If this is something you don’t want, click on “Edit Setting” and uncheck the box at the bottom of the page.

2. Be careful about the information within your profile – things like your birthday, location and interests. Facebook now has the ability to pull this data so it can be used to let advertisers target you better. As well, it’s used for the “Instant Personalization Pilot Program”.

3. Since Facebook is becoming more of a public place, think about your updates, Wall posts and the links, photos and videos being shared. More of this information is being indexed by search engines as opposed to being just for family and friends. This mean what you say on Facebook doesn’t necessarily stay on Facebook.

More: Mashable’s Ben Parr as a column “In Defense of Facebook” that suggests the flack Facebook is attracting for its privacy policies is misguided because it’s really up to users to protect their own privacy.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...
1 2