In the current, connected world you are bombarded by content, and new services competing for your attention. I'm a big proponent of social networks, and I've been trying out Ning as both a user (with OpenCoffee Club) and a provider (with London Wiki Wednesdays), and it looks to be quite a reasonable platform to connect your particular community. A few months ago I finally started to engage and make connections with Linkedin, the social network mostly used by corporate business, professionals, recruiters, and people looking for work. About a week ago I signed up for Facebook, because I'd begun to hear more and more references to it. As you'll know, the new generation use MySpace, Bebo, and a host of other sites as their natural way of communicating with their friends, in preference to e-mail and other archaic forms interaction. Facebook seems to have become the main choice for college kids in America, and has grown so fast that they recently turned down a $1Bn offer from Yahoo! I haven't actually done anything with my profile yet, but that will have to change following an announcement they made yesterday (called out to the EIs by Jason Corsello).
But first, what is Facebook? As well as allowing you to set up your profile and make connections like LinkedIn or MySpace, it will show you all the latest news and activity from your friends in your News Feed. You can see the photos and notes they have added and made public, and see what groups they've joined or created. David Kirkpatrick's Fortune article (on CNNMoney.com) explains the potential this way:
"Imagine that when you shopped online for a digital camera, you could see whether anyone you knew already owned it and ask them what they thought. Imagine that when you searched for a concert ticket you could learn if friends were headed to the same show. Or that you knew which sites - or what news stories - people you trust found useful and which they disliked. Or maybe you could find out where all your friends and relatives are, right now (at least those who want to be found)."
Now apply that thinking to the business and corporate world, and you could begin to get excited. These things are made possible by the announcement that Facebook's CEO made this week at their f8 (that's fate) event in San Francisco in front of several hundred journalists, analysts, and industry leaders. Facebook will move from being just a social-networking site to being an application platform that any company, Internet service, or software developer can use to build services for its members.
Mark Zuckerberg is the CEO. He's only 23 and he clearly has the World in his sights. The current statistics are impressive, and the momentum from this announcement will only increase the rate of adoption. They currently have 24 million users and are adding about 150,000 a day. More than 60 percent of users are outside of college age, and that older demographic taking up the service is the fastest growing. By the end of 2007 they expect to have over 50 million users.
Microsoft is Facebook's biggest business partner in terms of advertising, and as a user has a workplace network within Facebook of 10,000 members. The platform announcement opens the Facebook social network up to developers around the world - they say there are already 70 partners making applications. Companies will do everything from provide Facebook enabled versions of their products, to building specific applications for specific communities. Facebook could become a regular platform for Enterprise collaboration solutions. Zuckerberg believes his announcement is historic. It is certainly going to have a big impact, and I recommend you find out more about it.
Further reading:
Facebook's plan to hook up the world - David Kirkpatrick of Fortune
Facebook's Zuckerberg uncorks the social graph - Dan Farber on ZDNet
Facebook: We just want to share information more efficiently - Dan Farber on ZDNet
Facebook generations - Dennis Howlett on AccMan
The Teenybopper Network - Andrew McAfee of HBS
Facebook Launches Facebook Platform; They are the Anti-MySpace - Michael Arrington on TechCrunch
Facebook F8 Live - Pete Cashmore at Mashable (lists some of the 70 partners currently developing)
Facebook Grows Up - An Analysis of Today's News - Richard McManus on Read/Write Web
Photos courtesy of Don Loeb and Dan Farber.
