Section Report #1

Executive Summary

In only ten short years, Facebook has managed to introduce a social networking platform that benefits the societal facet of communication, while also creating a cultural and economic phenomenon fueled by the 728 Million daily active users4. But more importantly, Facebook has broken the geographic barrier to interpersonal communication. It defines a community where even if the members don’t share a personal relationship, they acknowledge each other’s existence as segments of the complete and share a set of collective practices and experiences. The company’s popularity helped timelines of events outlining the journey of Facebook become readily available, helping to give insight into the processes that took place from company inception to product adoption. This report provides an analysis and retroactive summary of the mapping and learning platforms of the social networking website, Facebook.

Mapping

Gestation

Although Mark Zuckerberg has always been savvy with technology, creating many programs prior to his enrollment at Harvard University, the program that earned him the reputation of the go-to software developer was his widely successful website, called Facemash. The website launched in October of 2003 and let students play a game of “hot or not” using students private Harvard University sponsored student ID photographs2. The program asked users to select the best looking person from a choice of photos, and ranked the selections providing a list of the most and least attractive individuals. Over a single weekend, the website gained enough popularity and website visits to gain the attention of Harvard’s administration2. Only a few days following the launch, the site was shut down by Harvard University charging Zuckerberg with a breach of security, an encroachment of privacy, and threatened expulsion1.

Shock

Students at Harvard University were requesting that the administration develop an internal website that would include students’...