http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2010-06-15/facebook
The inside story of Facebook. How a dorm-room novelty has evolved into a company with 500 million users worldwide and is changing the way we communicate.
Guests
David Kirkpatrick
technology writer and former senior editor for Internet and technology at Fortune Magazine
Comments
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Recently, there was a huge campaign on Facebook for Betty White to host Saturday Night Live. She ended up hostiing the show and thanked Facebook before proceeding to make fun of it in her opening monologue. I thought this was a remarkable example of the power of Facebook. Could Mr. Kirkpatrick comment on whether Facebook will have this effect on entertainment in the future?
Thank you
Stephen
Cincinnati, OH
Here's what I don't like about the photos section of Facebook: Anyone who can see a photo can copy and paste that photo into documents or save it as a jPeg file. This isn't safe and businesses could use photos without the permission of the people in the photo. Makes me very uncomfortable. Especially when children are in the pictures. Could your guest talk about this problem and what Facebook might be doing to fix it?
Thanks!
Carrie.
Being a sole proprietor and working from home in front of my computer all day, I often use Facebook as my "around the water cooler" time, to add some interaction with friends to break up my work day. Without Facebook, this wouldn't be practical, and it makes working from home a lot more pleasant and less isolating.
The fears that concern both your audience and guest are legitimate, but there is also something uniquely wonderful about Facebook. David mentioned the games that people are able to play. I met my fiancé playing the recreational Texas Holdem poker. The game allows you "friend" someone without giving them full access to your profile. When you do choose to add them to your full profile, the photographs, hundred of their friends posting on their wall, seeing their extended family on Facebook: these are ways to verify that the person you are meeting is who they purport to be. In effect, Facebook can actually make the world safer, and even help you find love.
Cheers,
Pam (Cleveland, OH)
This person sounds less like an author than an extension of Facebook's public relations department or a blatant opportunist trying to profit from the Facebook fad.
Facebook helped our local anti-violence public awareness campaign. I organized a Fathers Day photo contest that will be unveiled on Thursday. It's run through a tiny local organization called the Real MEN's Project here in Jackson, Michigan, but thanks to Facebook, we now have over 1,000 fans from as far away as Spain, South Africa, and Cabo Verde. Vermont's White Ribbon campaign, an anti-domestic violence organization, was inspired to do their own Fathers Day photo contest and a fan in Poland is considering a similar photo contest focusing on fathers' role in ending domestic and sexual violence through modeling healthy non-violent relationships. Facebook helped get out the good word for us.
Dani Meier, PhD
Real MEN's Project Co-Founder & Coordinator
www.realmensproject.org
I love Facebook. I can communicate with family all over the world. I do have a pet peeve. I hate status updates from people that are mundane such as "going to pick up my kids at school and then to the grocery store". Who cares? I love to read interesting witty updates that tell me about my friends.
... listening to the show the question was asked about why Zuckerman hasn't sold Facebook ? ... the real answer is he is seeking more then a couple billion ... the author on the show can't say the real reason to protect his own interest ... it's obvious ... Zuckerman probably is more interested in a bigger boat ... as the author is interested in as much as he can get ... let's get real here ...
i am an artist and think facebook is gonna be a great tool for selling art ``! here's one i want to share with the world ~!!http://www.facebook.com/?tid=1451310558471&sk=messages#!/photo.php?pid=30406103&id=1209543997
Prior to the 21st Century, the infrastructure that would allow for people to organize was spotty, so in the face of uncertainty, they maintained some deference to authority figures (in my case, professors). By default, teachers knew best and we could leverage that power to maintain a certain amount of compliance. With the advent of instant, constant, and widespread access to their peers through Facebook, they can now reduce their uncertainty about any situation by rallying their friends to convince them how "right" they are, while at the same time undermining the legitimacy of the outgroup. The effect is compounded by the perceived gravitas their ideas gain from being disseminated like miniature headline news broadcasts.
While listening to your show about facebook I am connecting with a friend I knew when I was 17 (9 years ago) who lives in Sao Paulo Brazil. I wrote on my status update that I was going to Brazil and she wrote me asking to meet up. Now I have a free place to stay and a tourist guide for 3 days in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Like many people nowadays, I work from my home, alone. Facebook doesn't take the place of the social aspect of being in a workplace environment, but it is helpful to feel at least somewhat connected to other human beings when spending so many hours by myself.
My wife interviewed for physician jobs this year, and one recruiter asked for her Facebook name to "stay in touch". A co-resident of hers saw a file on another recruiter's desk labeled "Facebook". We deduce that not only are the recruiter's staying in touch, they're monitoring which jobs the physician eventually signed with. I suppose they're interested in staying competitive with other markets and health systems by seeing who successfully woos candidates.
I don't spend as much time one Facebook as many of my friends, but as a person with depression I find it very useful. On my bad days when I am isolating, I can simply post that as my status. I end up with calls from friends who know they are needed. Changing my status is something I can accomplish on these bad days, when often I can not accomplish picking up the phone.
Alex
Boston
The guest completely glossed over the question about Facebook's relationship with the CIA. The real answer (instead of "Durrr...") is that Facebook has a relationship with In-Q-Tel as well as other organizations and people related to the DoD and DARPA.
In-Q-Tel has been in the news a lot lately, coincidentally.
Personally, I'm not overly concerned about a three letter agency seeing my lolcat pictures or my affiliation with a group about Star Wars. However, data mining on a massive scale can be a little unnerving, and it's a fact that the government is busy churning through Twitter/MySpace/Facebook etc. looking for terrorists and other "undesirables"...
But I encourage people to do what most people don't do: research it on your own and draw your own conclusions based on the information you find.
I beg to differ with your guest's opinion that "everyone on Facebook is a real person." I know people who have more than one identity. Unfortunate, but true.
However, I really enjoy Facebook because it allows me to have contact with, and even chat with, people all over the world.
A recent change at Facebook that allows their system to create pages based on things users post in the profiles is a bit of a concern to me. Several of my friends and I all listed a privately owned organization whose name is registered and copywritten. The owner of the organization did not create a community page, yet with the recent changes, there is now a community page and none of us have control of it. This brings up my primary complaint...reaching someone at Facebook to get this community page removed. After several attempts, I have not been able to contact anyone and their "help" pages seriously lack information.
Companies are also using information viewed on Facebook as part of the hiring process. They look to see if you write anything bad about the companies you worked for or infomation about coworkers. For this very reason I do not discuss anything related to work on facebook.
Another thing to consider is your privacy setting on photos. If you have any pictures that might be objectionable, its best to keep potential employers from seeing those.
Thank you for this show on illegal aliens. I worked for a State Extension service and we partnered with a state in Mexico. We witnessed how the villiages in Mexico are being desimated by able bodied men working in the U.S. The villiages consisted of women, children, old people and the drunks. The able bodied men were gone. Also, as a small farm owner, I witnessed my 'legal' farmers hire illegals who were partnering with women (not their wives) and having a child every year so they then qualify for multiple entitlements, including education, food, and rent assistance. I also discovered that these parents had abandoned their children and families in Mexico. Along with transporting illegal aliens back to Mexico, we must change the anchor baby law.