Scoble And Zuckerberg Discuss New Facebook Features

Robert Scoble, Scobelizer.com (also from Rackspace and  building43) and Mark Zuckerberg discuss Facebook's new Groups, Dowload Your Data, and Platform Apps Dashboard features released to the site over the past day or so. Here is the recorded discussion:

While Groups seems to be the one feature that is attracting the most attention, I'm impressed by Download Your Data and the Platform Apps Dashboard. Not to say that Groups is not a cool feature, but for a company who has had it's share of criticism regarding personal data giving the user the ability to make copies of their data and an easy way to see who is looking at what is a big step towards being open and accountable. If nothing else, it may make users more aware of what they are sharing and just what's out there for others to see.

I Just Saw The Social Network, As Did Facebook's Many Employees

I have just returned home from watching The Social Network with my family and we all agreed that it was a fine movie, there was even sympathy expressed for Mark Zuckerberg as we discussed the film over dinner. While I suppose we'll never know just how much was truth and what was fiction, those who are much closer to the story, the Facebook employees, were treated by the company to a movie day. Yes, Zuckerberg and company paid for Facebook's HQ employees to see the movie on opening day at a local Palo Alto theater complex.

“To celebrate a period of intense activity at Facebook, we decided to go to the movies,” a spokesman, Larry Yu, wrote. “We thought this particular movie might be amusing.” It's actually quite a testament to the company, in my opinion.

You grow up the day you have your first real laugh, at yourself. ~Ethel Barrymore

Source: NYTimes bits blog

The Facebook Movie Trailer - The Social Network

In case you were unaware, there is a movie coming out this fall that chronicles the raise of Mark Zuckerberg and his little website Facebook. "The Social Network" has a number of A list Hollywood actors and apparently has Zuck a little pissed. Recently the trailer was released on the site 500millionfriends.com

The Story That Won't Go Away - Zuckerberg Grilled Over Privacy Policy

The New York Times runs down the grilling of Mark Zuckerberg by veteran reporters at an on-stage interview at the D8 conference. Zuck apparently took off his trade mark hoodie during the interview apparently feeling the heat of the questioning. At 26 years of age it's got to be tough running one of the largest plays on the internet... but perhaps the heat will mature him in a hurry.  The Facebook founder is said to have looked uncomfortable during questioning and skirted around answers. “Maybe I’m in denial,” he said. “I think our goals haven’t really changed that much at all.” He then added: “I just think we are a lot closer to the beginning than the end. As companies get bigger people expect you to slow down and do less crazy stuff. I guess I hope we never do that.”

Facebook To Ask For Members Opinion / Vote On Major Changes

A week ago the Facebook user base to offense to a new terms of service and the company was forced to react by reverting to the old terms. On Thursday Facebook announced "that all significant policy changes on the site would be subject to comments from members and, if they prove controversial, a popular vote." according to the New York Times. Facebook founder and Chief Executive, Mark Zuckerberg told reporters in a conference call that “If we are trying to move the world to being more open and transparent and to get people to share more information, having an open process around this is ultimately the only way to do that,” The company is however reserving the right to roll out new features without the consultation.

Facebook's big challenge

Three former Harvard school mates of Mark Zuckerberg are alleging, in court, that Zuckerberg stole their ideas and created Facebook before they were able to launch their own competing site, ConnectU. Zuckerberg is being accused of fraud, copyright infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets. The 3 ConnectU founders claim that they asked Zuckerberg to create code for their site and that he promised to be working on the code when in fact he was creating Facebook. The lawsuit seeks to shut down the rival site, claiming that Facebook was able to be first to market and gain the advantage. Facebook lawyers say ConnectU has no evidence for "broad-brush allegations" against Zuckerberg. Globe and Mail story here.