FACEBOOK

By:

Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz

toughjamy@yahoo.com

History, Present, Issues, and Critics.

A journey from Facesmash to Facebook briefing on hurdles that came on way and featuring the Internet Censorship and SOPA debate.

SOCIAL NETWORKING

A social networking platform is an online service that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people. Almost all social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. 

We have seen Orkut, we know Google+, and we use Twitter, but there are many more operated worldwide. For instance The Sphere, Nexopia, Bebo, LinkedIn, Hi5, Tuenti, and Skyrock. There are plenty more that operate locally in different parts of world.

WHAT IS FACEBOOK

Facebook, again, is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc.

These days, it is the biggest Social Networking portal.Records say that as of January 2012, Facebook has more than 800 million active users.

Founded in : Cambridge, United States (2004)

Founder(s):• Mark Zuckerberg• Eduardo Saverin• Dustin Moskovitz• Chris Hughes

Headquarters located at : Menlo Park, California, U.S.

FACEBOOK COMPANY PROFILE

Facebook operates in Internet Service domain. And is available to users worldwide. Founded my Mark Zuckerberg.

Revenue : US$ 4.27 billion (approx)Users: 800 million (approx till September, 2011)Launched on : February 4, 2004Employee strength is approximately 3400

Key people:• Mark Zuckerberg (CEO)• Chris Cox (VP of Product)• Sheryl Sandberg (COO)• Donald Graham (Chairman)

Webranking: It is obviously a Google PR1 website, with Alexa page rank 2.

The biggest earning is due to advertising through Banner ads, referral marketing, casual games

FACESMASH : YOUNG GUY, HOT IDEAS !!

The journey started with a funny, controversial, yet a great hit - Facesmash. Mark Zuckerberg wrote Facemash. And this was the predecessor to Facebook.

Initially, the site was comparable to Hot or Not, and "used photos placing two next to each other at a time and asking users to choose the 'hotter' person". Zuckerberg had to hack into the protected areas of Harvard's computer network and copied the houses' private dormitory ID images. Obviously the youth power and young gossips led to the attraction of 450 visitors and 22,000 photo-views in its first four hours online.

The site soon to be shut down later by the Harvard administration. And, Zuckerberg was charged by the administration with breach of security, violating copyrights, and violating individual privacy, and faced expulsion. Ultimately, however, the charges were dropped.

SMASH, SMASH, AND BOOM!!

Zuckerberg continued and On February 4, 2004, he launched "Thefacebook". Soon he was accused by his seniors for intentionally misleading them into believing he would help them build a social network called HarvardConnection.com. It was an intellectual property theft and resulted into a lawsuit against Zuckerberg, and subsequent settlement.

Finally, Facebook was incorporated in mid-2004, and the entrepreneur Sean Parker, who had been informally advising Zuckerberg, became the company's president.[27] In June 2004, The domain 'Facebook.com' was purchased in 2005 for $200,000.

So now, formally the world got facebook.co, which we all are aware today.

Boom!!

CAN CRITICS BE SILENT?Obviously No!!And, Facebook was no exception!!

•Facebook has been blocked intermittently in several countries including China, Iran, Uzbekistan,Pakistan,Syria, and Bangladesh on different bases.

•It has been banned in many countries of the world on the basis of allowed content judged as anti-Islamic and containing religious discrimination.

•Banned at many workplaces to prevent employees from using it during work hours.

•The user info privacy has also been an issue.

•Safety of user accounts has been compromised several times. Here I mean that, hackers were successfull at their attempts on Facebook.

•In its initial days only, it settled a lawsuit regarding claims over source code and intellectual property.

•November 2011 marked enormous Facebook user accounts being hacked and their profile pictures were replaced with pornographic images.

•And, the latest by Indian court ruling against Facebook (and other companies too) for 'offensive and objectionable content'

THE SOCIAL NETWORK : MOVIE

The Social Network is a drama film directed by David Fincher. It was adapted from Ben Mezrich's 2009 book 'The Accidental Billionaires'. The movie portrays the founding of social networking website Facebook and the resulting lawsuits. It was distributed by Columbia Pictures and was released on October 1, 2010. the budget was $40 million.

The prominent star cast is as follows: •Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg•Andrew Garfield as Eduardo Saverin•Justin Timberlake as Sean Parker•Armie Hammer as Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss•Josh Pence as Tyler Winklevoss (body double for Armie Hammer)•Max Minghella as Divya Narendra

The film received widespread acclaim, with critics praising it for its editing, acting, score and screenplay. Some people, including Zuckerberg himself, criticized the film for its many inaccuracies.

INDIAN COURT RULING AGAINST OFFENSIVE CONTENT IN FACEBOOK, GOOGLE, YAHOO ETC.

There are some authorities across the globe and now even Indian court that wants these (and 21 others) Internet companies to develop a (? Big question mark!!) mechanism to keep a check and remove from their Web pages those materials which are deemed 'offensive and objectionable'.

A Delhi court sent a summons to the headquarters of foreign Internet companies including Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and Yahoo on Friday, in a private case against objectionable content online. It started with some RTI Activists who found religious content on the sites that he considered offensive, and filed a complaint with a Delhi court, prompting Additional Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar to issue notices to 21 Internet sites in December. Henceforth, The magistrate has asked the foreign entities and Indian Internet companies mentioned in the complaint to appear before the court on March 13. It has been warned that "Like China, we will block all such web sites,". This was said by High Court Judge Suresh Kait said.

More details can be read at my blog http://new-it-discussions.blogspot.com/2012/01/objectionable-content-in-google-fb.html

SOPA ACT AND THE WORLD

Thousands of websites went dark in January 2012, to protest the SOPA ACT (Stop Online Piracy Act).

This law is designed to thwart copyright infringement. But it could do more harm to the Internet as a whole. I, and thousands of Web experts across the globe see a threat to the functionality of the Internet.

STOP SOPA Please!!Internet-wise, be wise..

The debate of Internet Censorship is wide and very hot these days. There is a dedicated page on Facebook called ‘Internet Censorship Voyager’. People supporting free internet should visit, like and comment on the page.

MARK ZUCKERBERG FACEBOOK COMMENT: ANTI-PIRACY BILL

Post from Internet Censorship Voyager Blog.

Mark Zuckerberg commented on Antipiracy bill over his official Facebook profile. He openly said -- We need "political leaders who are pro-internet.” Also said that --- " Facebook opposes SOPA and PIPA, and we will continue to oppose any laws that will hurt the internet. "

As you can see, there were 450,820 likes in 12 hours of post. Approximately 86,000 shares were done about this post. I Love Zuckerberg for this bold statement.

This article is dedicated to his innovations, courage and dedication towards free-internet.

FINAL COMMENTS...

Founded in February 2004, Facebook has proved itself to be an immensely useful, engaging, and attactive social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family and coworkers.

The technologies, easiness, APIs, projections, Apps, and other tools by Facebook are just awesome. They all help facilitating the share of information through the social graph, the digital mapping of people's real-world social connections.

Facebook is open to All. Anyone can sign up interact with the people they know in a trusted environment.

No wonder, Facebook is a part of millions of people’s lives and half of the users return daily!!!

THANK YOU

I am Mohd Anwar Jamal Faiz, presently based at Pune, India. Associated with the IT industry since 5 years and working with Internet technologies for past one and a half decade.

Please send in your feedback at : toughjamy@yahoo.com

You can read my blogs at :http://new-it-discussions.blogspot.com/http://internet-censorship-voyager.blogspot.com/

To read my complete Professional file:http://www.meonshow.com/splash.php?uid=toughjamy