The Facebook Effect I

In David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect facebook creator Mark Zuckerberg states, “We’re going to change the world.” (Kirkpatrick 43) And, with nearly 600 million users worldwide, it seems the social networking site already has changed the way people make “friends” and interact. In just 6 short years, Zuckerberg has transformed a Harvard dorm room novelty into an international phenomenon with no signs of slowing down. Readers of this book learn both the brilliance and the missteps of the world’s youngest billionaire. Zuckerberg and Sean Parker showed at the Sequoia capital offices in their pajamas to play a joke on the straight-laced venture capitalist firm. The young men made a fictitious business presentation having no intent on ever taking Sequoia’s investment. They did it merely to get back at the company for wronging Parker in his previous endeavor. “I assume we really offended them and now I feel really bad about that because they are serious people trying to do good stuff and we wasted their time. It’s not a story I’m very proud of” states the now maturing Zuckerberg (Kirkpatrick 105).

On Zuckerberg’s own Facebook page he has the following quote:

 "Make things as simple as possible but no simpler."- Albert Einstein

His business strategy for the growth of the social network seems to follow Mr. Einstein’s wise, but not easy plan. "Thefacebook had no content of its own. It was merely a piece of software-a platform for content created by its users."(Kirkpatrick 31)  Zuckerberg appears to run the company by following the desires of the folks on the site. In other words, it is “user generated.” And, as the author states "Their site was about people; Google was about data," (Kirkpatrick 54). Executives from the internet giant Google seemed to realize very early days of  Facebook that the site was a more than a fad and showed up at the rental house the initial team worked out of to see if Google could work with or maybe buy the young company. Zuckerberg, despite his youth and inexperience never considered selling his project. “Despite his baby face and general shyness, Zuckerberg was firmly and undisputedly in charge” readers are told (Kirkpatrick 51) 

"Their site was about people; Google was about data," (Kirkpatrick 54).

Sean Parker, who was an original founder of Napster played a “major-if controversial- character in the Facebook story (Kirkpatrick 46). Not only did Parker have a lot of internet experience, but he also had venture capital contacts. Zuckerberg and he met briefly at a dinner in New York and would soon live together in a rented house in Palo Alto. Shortly after moving into the house, Parker was the company president. This would lead to the first major investor in Facebook of $500,000 by PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Thiel being an entrepreneur himself said, “I was comfortable with them pursuing their original vision” and in one of the greatest understatements of all time added, “I thought it was going to be a pretty safe investment” (Kirkpatrick 89).

The first section of Kirkpatrick’s book provides readers with a very open and interesting story of the journey this amazing young company and it’s brilliant CEO have endeavored upon to “change the world.” Investor Thiel gave the minimalist Zuckerberg some advice that Einstein would appreciated… “just don’t fuck it up” (Kirkpatrick 89). It seems the young billionaire took that wise advice to heart.

Bill Gates' favorite teacher

Goodbye to college debt? ... Hello to Sal Kahn and Online Education...

khanacademy.org

Bill Gates says, Sal Kahn “is amazing," and, he continued, "It is awesome how much he has done with very little in the way of resources." A Harvard MBA and former hedge fund manager, Kahn may be changing the landscape of education for future generations for whom college may become an over-priced luxury item. Kahn began his modest endeavor like many entrepreneurs, accidentally. His seventh grader cousin, Nadia, was having trouble in math class converting kilograms. Kahn, in addition to his Harvard MBA also holds three degrees from MIT: a BS in math and a BS and a master’s in electrical engineering and computer science. According to their Facebook page, Kahn Academy is: A not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a world class education, for free, to anyone, anywhere.

The video tutorial collection, all recorded by Kahn (his face never appears) and accompanied by his step-by step diagrams on an electronic blackboard cover everything from basic arithmetic to calculus, chemistry, physics, and finance and also has a web-app that dynamically generates problems for practice. Gates and his 11-year-old son Rory began soaking up videos, from algebra to biology this past spring after learning about Kahn from a colleague at his small think tank, bgC3.

Kahn’s library of over 1800 videos on YouTube is now seen an average of over 70,000 times a day- That is nearly double the student body at Harvard and Stanford combined. Kahn says he has reached about 200,000 students…every month! And he states, “There’s no reason it shouldn’t be 20 million.” He currently does not monetize the operation, relying on donations. The largest of which came from Ann and John Doer a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. When a PayPal donation for $10,000 appeared on Kahn’s site, Kahn e-mailed the donor because the normal donation is $100 and fund it was Ann Doer. She was suggested they meet and was shocked to find out that her donation had been the largest the “academy” has ever received. After returning home from their lunch, Kahn found a message from Doer saying there is $100,000 in the mail.

Of course, mainstream education is skeptical. “It’s a solid supplemental resource, particularly for motivated students,” says Jeffrey Leeds, president of Leeds Equity Partners, the largest U.S. private equity firm specializing in for-profit education. “But it’s not an academy—it’s more of a library,” Leeds predictably states.

The Kahn Academy Company Overview:

A not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing a world class education, for free, to anyone, anywhere. We are most known for our library of over 1000 videos on YouTube (all recorded by Sal Khan), but we intend to eventually provide a fully featured, free virtual school covering all major subjects.

With the growing popularity of Kahn Academy, overpriced colleges may become a thing of the past…

Kahn was recently featured by ABC news as their person of the week…

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/person-week-dad-answer-thousands-dad-math-tips-equations-viral-video-helping-thousands-students-david-muir-12252450

Sakai…Calculators…Math…Education… Technology

Having returned to Rutgers after 18 years to complete my undergrad degree has been an amazing and enlightening experience. Not knowing how much damage I had done to my brain during the previous two decades of substance abuse, I was scared to death. The incorporation of technology into the educational process was the obvious difference from my last time at Rutgers. Technology and the fact that I was actually in a classroom were both big differences. Soon after arriving at my first class in 18 years… 10 minutes late—no notebook---no parking permit...(but obviously with my lingering bad habits) I was introduced to the word “sakai.” I was expecting to be handed a syllabus and was told that it was located, along with other class materials at some mysterious location on the internet called “sakai.” The professor then proceeded to use this peculiar word about a dozen times during the shortened first class period. I was quite sure I would never make it.

For me, the good old days were not so good, so embracing change has become a way of life for me. And, after the fear subsided and I realized that I had not killed all of my brain cells, I was able to figure out this sakai thing. I really love technology, not really because of “APP’s” or new cell phones, but because there is no economic recession on the internet. I am dialed into new ideas and ways of doing things. I think we are in the middle of a revolution economically and folks who embrace change will prosper.

Anyway, to remind me how out of touch I am… or how old? …I took a math class this summer. Actually, I had to take a math class because I got a “D” in calculus sometime in the ‘80’s… the second half of the 80’s and the entire 90’s are a little blurry… and I showed up with a calculator that was a freebie from a bank. All my “peers” has these expensive engineering calculators. These contraptions looked more imposing than the math itself. When I last took a math class, we actually “worked out” equations on paper. Since it was summer session, it met 4 times weekly and moved very quickly. I had not opened a math book in over 20 years and what looked liked pedestrian math, proved to be a bit more because of the speed and my “lay-off.” However, with some help from an 18 year-old classmate who was actually taking his first ever college class, I was able to endure. School and live are so much easier when I show up and ask for help when needed…who knew?

At the end of this semester, I will have only 2 classes remaining… But having overcome Sakai, the “calculator” and several other much larger obstacles, my ability to embrace change is what makes the future look so bright…

Midterm Assignment

I really don’t like to agree with college professors as a rule, but it would be impossible to regard Wikipedia as a scholarly source. However, to ban it as a reference like Middlebury College is so close-minded and to me college is about being open-minded to possibilities not elitist about from where information emanated. To cite it as a source and not check the source would be like hearing something from Keith Olbermann and accepting it as truth. Some of it is probably true, but more research is required. The point, it can’t be cited as a source, but it is a great starting point. It should be used as a learning tool and not a research source…which is more than I can say about Olbermann. As our class presentations made clear, some web links will no longer exist and this alone makes it not entirely reliable as a source. Also, because the content on Wikipedia is largely acquired from anonymous posts it can contain a great deal of bias.

It seems to me, technology such as Wikipedia, Facebook and Twitter should be embraced by educators and the educational system to invite open, informal and liberal communication between teachers and students. Instead of technology being classified as …good-bad or downside-upside… it should be seen as a tool in the building of a life-long educational process. Just because Wikipedia is more informal than a scholarly journal does not mean it has no merit in the classroom. Sometimes colleges get so caught up in their scholarly pursuits that they seem to lose touch with what is going on in the “real world.” In the context of American culture, maybe thinking more about how they are cavalierly raising tuition prices and less about Wikipedia as a way to maintain credibility would be time better spent.

And, on the subject of credibility, what was apparent during the research of the Scientology page was that scholarly research can be questioned as well. Sociology Professor Anson Shupe from Indiana StateUniversity-Purdue University called Professor Stephen Kent from the University of Alberta a “bozo” in an email he sent to me and questioned Kent’ credibility both as a researcher and an expert on Scientology. Kent is described on the Wikipedia page as an expert and has been cited in many peer-reviewed scholarly journals but Shupe was clearly questioning his methods of research. When I looked further into Kent’s and Shupe’s backgrounds, it seems both have questionable methodologies in their research of Scientology. It appeared that Kent only spoke to ex-Scientologists in his research and Shupe, in his research of the controversy between Scientology and the Cult Awareness Network, read only the depositions that the prosecuting lawyer and Scientologist Kendrick Moxon had selected for him. It appears that students who do due diligence in their research may find the need to not only check the facts on Wikipedia pages, but those in peer-reviewed journals by college professors as well…

Made To Break III

Giles Slade outlines the end of the world due to e-waste quite nicely in the first 270 or so pages in Made to Break. On page 277 he finally admits, “The popularity of papers addressing Life Cycle Assessments and Extended Product Responsibility may indicate that the electronics industry is now undergoing positive change from within. Other indications of this change are the cost-free take-back, reuse, and recycling programs now in place at most major American electronics manufacturers, including Hewlett Packard and Dell.” (Slade 277) The author is describing the cycle of change that seems to always occur in the consumer world.

In 1859, William Jevons, then England’s greatest economist, was knighted by the queen of England for writing The Coal Question, which predicted that the British Empire would collapse by 1900 because it would run out of coal. He was correct, they did run out of coal. But, by that time they had switched to petroleum. The first oil well was drilled in Pennsylvania that year. My point is that yes e-waste is a problem… And, yes we will adapt. History has proven the naysayers wrong time and again.

To his credit, Slade does not engage in finger-pointing. He simply adapts a very pragmatic approach to a problem of e-waste.  He states, “During the next few years, the overwhelming problem of waste of all kinds will, I believe, compel American manufacturers to modify industrial practices that feed upon throwaway ethic. The golden age of obsolescence-the heyday of nylons, tailfins, and transistor radios-will go the way of the buffalo. Whatever comes in its place will depend on the joint effort of informed consumers and responsive manufacturers, who will, I believe, see the benefits of genuinely serving their customers interests through green design.” (Slade 281)

Slade is correct. Number one, the market is always adjusting. Just as the consumer got tired of Cadillac’s and bought longer-lasting and more economical VW’s, so it will adjust to the crazy technological and fashion obsolescence the author discusses in Chapter 9 and slow down on the constant cell phone purchasing. (Slade 267) And, number two entrepreneurial minds will grasp the importance and lucrative business opportunities in recycling will emerge. So, the author concludes that only by a cultural change driven by government, consumers and manufacturers will a resolution be reached.

To describe our culture of consumerism, the author invokes sociologist Colin Campbell who describes the “mystery” of modern consumption itself- “it’s character as an activity which involves an apparently endless pursuit of wants, the most characteristic feature of modern consumption being this insatiability.” (Slade 265) Slade combines Campbell’s description with the social cascade effect, which describes the sudden popularity of certain things like eateries, clothes or now, phones. It would seem to me that if society can change suddenly in one direction, it can go in the opposite direction. Green will be cool someday. Using “old-school” electronics will be hip and the world will not come to an end. Slade’s book does make the reader examine his or her own consumption diet and in this the book delivers a valuable message.

Overcoming “Crackberry” at the Internet Addiction Recover Center…

In an article in the Seattle Times March 14, 2010 reporter Tyrone Beason informs readers that the Blackberry has jokingly been dubbed “Crackberry” by owners who can’t seem to put it away even in social settings. According to a report from the University of California at San Diego, the average American consumes a brain-exploding 34 gigabytes of content and either sees or hears 100,000 words each day, from the Web to TV to text messages. The question the reporter seems to be asking his readers is, are we addicted?

An internet recovery program in Falls City Washington seems to indicate some individuals are in technological crisis. reStart cofounders Hilarie Cash and Cossette Rae treat clients who have lost jobs, relationships and homes because of their Internet addiction. The center is the first in the nation aimed solely at helping a new category of addict that researchers are still attempting to understand. By last February 2010, 8 people had gone through the entire program. http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com/

Some of the Internet addicts who show up here are so far gone that simple experiences such as working in a group and chatting across the dinner table have become foreign to them. They need to be shown not just the emotional rewards of physical activities but the basic lessons of human interaction. They must be brought back into the world.

As a species, humans are vulnerable to any outside stimuli that changes the way we feel. One of our nation’s biggest concerns today is obesity. As a staunch Libertarian, I am both a defender and believer in humans ability to judge for themselves and get and receive help from others if need be. In other words, even though there is an obesity problem, I don’t believe the government should outlaw cheeseburgers. I feel the same way about obesity and Internet addiction. I believe education is always the best medicine. And, if we need help we can go to rehab.

reStart is a program with 12-Step model of recovery….

 12 Steps and Principles for

Internet and Technology Addiction Anonymous

These twelve steps and principles are guidelines for members of Internet and Technology Addiction Anonymous (ITAA) to live by. We can recognize and overcome living issues by using the twelve steps and/or principles. If you choose to embrace these steps and principles into your life, it will get better, no matter what you are having a problem with.

1.      HONESTY: Admit that you, or yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.

2.      HOPE: Come to believe that the power greater than ourselves can restore you to health.

3.      TRUST: Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of your higher power as you understand it.

4.      TRUTH: Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.

5.      INTEGRITY: Admit to yourself, to a higher power, and another human being the exact nature of your wrongs.

6.      CHANGE OF HEART: Become entirely ready to have a higher power remove all your character defects.

7.      HUMILITY: Humbly ask a higher power to remove your shortcomings.

8.      BROTHERLY LOVE: Make a written list of all persons you have harmed and become willing to make restitution to them.

9.      RESTITUTION AND RECONCILIATION: Wherever possible, make direct restitution to all persons you have harmed, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10.  ACCOUNTABILITY: Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.

11.  PERSEVERANCE: Listen (and continue to listen) to your heart. Earnestly seek to understand your higher power, whatever that may be on any given day. Continue to give yourself credit for earnest effort, however imperfect.

12.  SERVICE AND SPIRITUALITY: Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of these steps, share this message with others who excessively use technology and practice these principles in all you do.

Note: The Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous have been adapted for Internet Addiction. Alcoholics Anonymous World Services, Inc. ("A.A.W.S."). A.A. is not affiliated with Internet Addiction Anonymous as A.A. is a program of recovery from alcoholism only.

Michael Wesch and YouTube… Are we Digitally Disconnecting or Connecting?

After viewing Michael Wesch’s talk at the Library of Congress on the effects of social media and digital technology on global society it got me thinking about what “digital disconnect” means in 2010. Wesch, who is a professor of cultural anthropology at Kansas State University, examines human uses of technology. His talk to the Library of Congress focused on the phenomenon of YouTube, and the community of people using it. The talk illustrated the power of the internet to transfer both information and feelings. For example Wesch tells the story of a chubby kid dancing alone in his suburban New Jersey bedroom who created a video which created a world-wide dance frenzy. This “silly” video has been viewed an estimated 600 million times. Ten years ago “digital disconnect” seemed to mean that kids in school were ahead of their teachers in using technology to do homework. Today, whether we are disconnecting or actually connecting by the millions is open to question.

The global social network Facebook now has about 600 million members. So, if we are spending hour upon hour connecting with others and making new “friends” online (while sitting home alone) are we connecting or disconnecting? As Wesch states, “YouTube is a celebration of new forms of community… the types of community we have never really seen before … global connections transcending space and time… and in fact they can actually invent new ways of connecting with each other and  it’s getting easier and easier to do.” Wesch concludes that the web is about linking people together and, we are going to have to rethink some things… even love.” The question, if we are connecting or disconnecting may have to be reevaluated as well.

“As media has changed, human relations have changed” proclaims Wesch. And, in 2010 technology is moving at lightening speed and the dynamic of human relationships appear to be changing as well. Communities are now being built via the internet. Facebook and YouTube are examples of virtual communities. In 1993 Howard Rheingold wrote a book called The Virtual Community. Rheingold may have been the first citizen of the internet community. In the book, he describes a population that is as real as any physical community. People meet, talk, seek information and even fall in love. As Wesch says about YouTube, what we see here is “people connecting very, very deeply.”

Technology can be what we make of it. We can continually focus on the “downside” of the virtual community. But, we can do that with the physical community. There was loneliness, isolation and negative human relations long before the internet. In my mind, technology can and will be embraced to overcome these and many other difficulties associated with everyday living… and, bring us closer as a global community.