Known as: the founder of Facebook
Know him as: The guy who got a movie based on him
(Mark Zuckerberg, from Google images)
1. Somethings you may not know
You've heard of him as the founder of Facebook. You might have imagined him as another computer geek... but his background in life is much more than that.
At an early age, he already started making computer programs. His father taught him basic programming and the young boy developed several programs. He was a computer genius. During his high school years, he developed a program called Synapse Media Player which uses A.I. to learn about the user's listening habits.1 Microsoft and AOL tried to buy the program and recruit Zuckerberg but he refused and decided to go to Harvard. He knows several languages: French, Latin, Hebrew, to name some, and loves literature. You better remove that geek image because he was quite sporty. He was actually a fencing star and was the captain in his team.2
Now, Zuckerberg claims the spot of being the youngest billionaire at 2008.
2. The Social Network: what's true and what's not?
Last 2010, "The Social Network" came out. It's a dramatized movie based on Zuckerberg and how Facebook came to be. Some of you may be wondering whether Zuckerberg really stole that idea from someone else or not.
Well, according to David Kirkpatrick, author of The Faceobok Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World, only 40% of the movie was true.3 Though unspecified according to an article whether it's the school or the Zuckerberg's group, they possessed "Face Books" which had faces of all who lived in student dormitories.4 Using this, he made a website. The website where it presented two faces and selecting one who looked better was indeed true.5 This online activity became extremely popular that it became difficult to surf the Internet in the university.
Another website he made was a website called Course Match which displayed the courses of dormers so that they could have study groups.6 A simple, yet is a very relevant and helpful idea for students. We can see here Zuckerberg's ingenuity despite the simplicity of the idea.
After the Face Book debacle, the students wanted the university to develop a website that displays the pictures and contact details of students living in the dormitories. Zuckerberg heard of this demand and, according to Arie Hasit (one of Zuckerberg's roommates), decided that if the university would not respond to the demands, he will.7 More than that, he would even make it better. And so he did. Facebook is used by millions of users today and is one of the leading social networks. It may have been an odd idea to make a movie based on a social networking site, but this goes to show the success of Facebook and of Zuckerberg. Moreover, the film was successful in itself.
Zuckerberg wittingly took the opportunity at hand. With his expertise, he developed something very successful, popular, and useful, much unique to the older social networking sites. He didn't steal an idea. He only responded to what was in demand and pushed it even further by adding all sorts of varieties making it his. There is difficulty in innovation in a sense that anybody can top your ideas in a flash. What we can learn here is that we are already at an age where there are many information or things we can tap into. We just need to combine elements, functions, or ideas to form something new. This is innovation at its simplest form: taking what's already present and forming something fresh.
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Sources:
1 "Machine Learning and MP3s - Slashdot." Slashdot: News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters. Web. 26 July 2011.
2 Heffernan, Virginia. "Looking for the Real Mark Zuckerberg - NYTimes.com." The New York Times - Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. 10 Dec. 2010. Web. 26 Jul. 2011.
3
4 Grimland, Guy. "Facebook Founder's Roommate Recounts Creation of Internet Giant - Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News." Israel News - Haaretz Israeli News Source. 05 Oct. 2009. Web. 26 July. 2011.
5 Ibid.
6 Ibid.
7 Ibid.
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