Mark Zuckerberg Launches Facebook Book Group

Mark Zuckerberg

The first week of January defines high tide for new year resolutions. My local YMCA, for example, experiences an attendance spike during this temporary wave of virtue. Others wish to improve their own and others' minds. A case in point is Facebook's major shareholder and Harvard dropout Mark Zuckerberg. He recently launched on Facebook a de facto book club which proposes to focus on serious titles addressing important topics.

Zuckerberg's resolution, under the title "A Year of Books," asserts that he will read one book every two weeks. He also intends to become engaged via Facebook in a useful community discussion of each book's principal points. It will be very interesting to observe this laudable project's progress in the coming months.

It's easy and fair to criticize Mark Zuckerberg for Facebook's ruthless data strip mining techniques and hypocritical privacy perspective. However, his attempt to create a community intended to stimulate intellectual engagement stands above the wave of smug corporate promises for a "successful" new year. Zuckerberg deserves credit for promoting thoughtful, extended reading. Alas, "A Year of Books" does have something of a tidal feeling. What happens to the community of readers when the "Year of Books" ends on January 1, 2016?

Facebook Heckler Gives Fine Art Photo the Finger -- My Response

A few days ago, a photographer posted a landscape image on Facebook. One person commented that it was a shot a 12-year-old could have taken. (For the record, I believe the picture in question required considerable imagination and skill to envision and produce.)

The comment about the image reminded me of an episode shortly after I graduated from college. I was visiting someone who was far wiser to the ways of the fine art world than I was. In an attempt to show off my undergraduate knowledge, I spotted a Norman Rockwell work and made a snide observation about it. My host presented a different perspective. He pointed out Rockwell's ability as a draftsman and that one should respect skill, even in unfashionable works.

For decades, some visual artists have endured similar "a monkey could do it" potshots as the photographer experienced on her Facebook site. For artists to resist coarse opinion requires strength of purpose and a healthy self-regard. Unfortunately, the temptation to believe that unflattering commentary is limited to provincial show-offs does not correspond with the varieties of human nature. There are plenty of professional reviewers, for example, who cynically or thoughtlessly believe pithy smart remarks demonstrate wit worthy of Voltaire. It's fair to say some Philistines dress in all-black New York outfits, talk a good game, and are savagely ignorant.

Martin Scorsese once sagely observed about his own craft that the more he produced, the more he realized he didn't know. Scorsese learned to embrace exploration and learning, qualities not always highly valued in the movie business. Artists from all visual disciplines have independently arrived at the same conclusion.

Scorsese grasped how fleeting and precious the chances to expand one's intellectual horizons really are. When one compares accomplished creation to the level of a pre-teen's guesswork, a much greater opportunity for inquiry, for understanding, for enrichment, has been given the finger. That's sad. However, I have the consolation of returning to the photograph and appreciating its quiet confidence, observational skill, and simple beauty. I'm thankful for that.

Sheryl Sandberg's "Lean In": The Movie

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg, the adult in Facebook's corporate playpen, has caught Hollywood's attention. Sony Pictures recently purchased the film rights to Sandberg's prosaic assertion of female business empowerment, Lean In, according to a story originally reported by Deadline Hollywood and picked up by siliconvalley.com.

It's not unusual for a studio to purchase rights to a book. However, a post-millennial manifesto doesn't seem quite in tune for Sandberg's generational movie-going peers, unless the film becomes a pep talk about capital acquisition, technological "progress," and the pleasure of power. We'll see.

Interestingly, the rights to Lean In belong to Sandberg's Lean In Foundation. This is the same foundation that searched for an unpaid editorial intern, until Lean In was outed. Suddenly, money materialized for an intern. I wonder if that episode will make Lean In: The Movie's final cut.

MOOC Player Coursera Hires Netflix, Facebook Execs

MOOCs, a/k/a Massive Open Online Course, have touted their ability to "disrupt" traditional academic education by changing "delivery models." These Internet-based schemes offer open courses, worldwide participation, and replay capability. Much as in traditional higher education programs, the Q&A sessions are left to poorly paid teaching assistants. What they don't offer is a walk-in classroom and a live human being delivering "knowledge."

Coursera, started by two Stanford University computer science professors, is in the vanguard of the MOOC movement. Their desire to reshape the higher education landscape recently took an interesting turn. Earlier this month, Silicon Valley Business Journal (SVBJ) reported that Coursera hired two Valley executives. One was poached from Netflix; the other was swept away from Facebook. What do these two men (yes, they are men) have in common? Well, neither are educators. The Netflix wiz understands algorithms that use predictive models to suggest "choices" for end-users. In Coursera's case, that would mean students. The Facebook "engineer" has a background in making video and other groovy "necessities" function in a social network environment.

The SBVJ story noted that Coursera was in Series B venture funding. In other words, it had a long way to go before the VC crowd could cash in on the bull rush to MOOC Ed. However, it also noted that Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg just invested in an "education analytics" firm called Panorama Education. There was no word on whether Panorama Ed received any interest from the Newark, New Jersey school system, which Zuckerberg so publicly donated stock around the time of the opening of the unflattering movie The Social Network.

Sandberg's LeanIn.Org to Its Interns: Work For Free

Sheryl Sandberg

Sheryl Sandberg's nonprofit foundation, Leanin.org, recently posted for a part-time intern to assist its editorial guru Jessica Bennett. Apparently, Ms. Sandberg's associate thought free labor was her entitlement: a foundation spokesperson later noted in a statement quoted in a Los Angeles Times story on the contretemps that Leanin.org "has enjoyed the participation of part-time volunteers to help us advance our education and peer support programs."

Keep in mind that Ms. Sandberg recently cashed in over $90 million in Facebook stock. Surely her nonprofit venture, which managed to find a healthy compensation package for Jessica Bennett, could find at least a minimum wage salary for a part-timer.

The moral of the story? Women who "lean in" promptly get "pushed out." Is that the legacy Sandberg wants to create?

Facebook Opens Server Farm in Sweden

Facebook's server farm in Sweden
(photo: facebook.com)

With an exquisitely ironic sense of timing, Facebook today began processing data from a new server farm outside the United States. The opening comes on the heels of Facebook's first public meeting for its equity shareholders, and revelations suggesting Facebook cooperated in the American security state's data sweeps. (How many "likes" did the NSA get today, eh?)

According to a story in siliconvalley.com, Facebook's Swedish server farm is located on the edge of the Arctic Circle. Mark Zuckerberg's version of Green Acres happens to be near major hydroelectric dams, an essential need for energy-hungry servers. Sweden's northern reaches also happen to be chilly, and high performance servers require constant, cool temperatures to run at maximum efficiency.

The siliconvalley.com piece noted some Swedes questioning their Facebook data's privacy. European laws tend to be far more restrictive than American regulations regarding data privacy. The Swedes may have reason to worry. One critic claimed that the data Facebook collects in Sweden is "mirrored" on US-based servers. Thanks to Edward Snowden, we have a more definitive sense of just how private American data is.

IRS Considers Taxing Perks At Iconic Silicon Valley Firms

Photo: applieddatalabs.com

The Mercury News reported today that the Internal Revenue Service is rumored to be considering a tax on free meals employees offered at major Silicon Valley firms. The story offers a revealing glimpse into the sense of entitlement employees at firms such as Google and Facebook embrace.

One former Google employee was quoted as maintaining the free food was not "compensation," but "a phenomenal convenience..." Apparently, that line of reasoning was sufficient to dodge the taxman. Meanwhile, the Mercury News article cited a story from the late, lamented Gourmet magazine raving about the Google dining room's sensational cuisine, including "'porcini-encrusted grass-fed beef.'" That's not exactly "convenience" food. Some of the Valley's employees and chefs claimed the high-quality dining was essential to a firm's culture, growth prospects, and hiring attractiveness.

The meals were for everyday employees, and not restricted to executive dining rooms. Somehow, the brains that turn out the secret sauce known as "proprietary algorithms" could not possibly function effectively without tax-free meals. The tech firms and their satellite dependencies would have one believe that instituting a government levy on corporate cafeterias would somehow diminish the appeal of working in the global epicenter of technological innovation. Sorry, I'm not buying it.

I admit I typically don't pay tax for my work lunches. Then again, I usually bring my own lunch from home. I manage.

Report: California Women Still Reeling From Great Recession

Sheryl Sandberg

With all the fuss about Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg's optimistic new book cherishing women's "empowerment," a report by the California Women's Project shines a different light on gender and economics. The study, as noted in an Oakland Tribune story picked up by siliconvalley.com, notes how women in the Golden State have not shared in the so-called recovery from the Great Recession.

Here's one sobering thought: "the median annual earnings among women in California declined from $32,973 in 2006 to $30,938 in 2011."

Meanwhile, Ms. Sandberg's base compensation at Facebook was $300,000 plus $30 million (more or less) in Facebook stock. She also owns stock options and restricted stock units that may be worth well in excess of $1 billion.

Zuckerberg to Host Chris Christie Mixer in Palo Alto

Mark Zuckerberg
(photo: forbes.com)

Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will host a campaign fundraiser for New Jersey governor Chris Christie next month, according to a report in siliconvalley.com. The handshake-and-handout fest will continue Mr. Facebook's puzzling connection to the Garden State and its politics. Zuckerberg initially linked to New Jersey around the time the movie The Social Network flashed across American movie screens. As you may recall, Zuckerberg offered many millions to "help" the cause of "school reform" in Newark. If you are asking for evidence of the "school reform," you're not alone. Few have seen any changes in the Newark schools that warrant the donation and subsequent secrecy surrounding its use. Newark mayor and liberal media darling Cory Booker have worked overtime to squash inquiries about the funds and their utilization. It took a successful ACLU lawsuit on behalf of a Newark community organization to compel the Booker administration to release e-mail about the funds, Booker's role in their distribution, and the mayor's plans to "reform" the school system.

Sheryl Sandberg
(photo: theatlantic.com)

Meanwhile, conservative media darling Christie (well, he was beloved by the right-wing until the governor experienced his St. Paul at Damascus moment during Hurricane Sandy) is working to position himself as presidential material. Why Christie believes Silicon Valley is a more appropriate venue to test the DC waters than, say, Seaside Heights, is a fascinating question. On the other hand, what's curious about Zuckerberg's tango with the New Jersey GOP's capo is the visible political connections the company has with the Democratic Party via Facebook's resident brain, Sheryl Sandberg.

My gut tells me Christie doesn't have a chance in the presidential sweepstakes. I don't think he'll survive the primaries. VP? Maybe, but only if the top of the ticket says "Bush."

Mark Zuckerberg's Sister Posts "Private" Facebook Photo That Became "Public"

Oops :)

Recently, Randi Zuckerberg (a/k/a "Mark's sister") posted a photo she intended for viewing only with her Facebook "friends." Well, thanks to Facebook's new "poke" device, a person one degree of separation from Ms. Zuckerberg saw the photo. Before you could say "privacy policy," the photo became the principal message of a tweet.

In a delicious twist of irony, Mark's sister was, ahem, unhappy with this alleged breach of social network etiquette. She apparently was less unhappy with the opaque rigamarole known as Facebook's privacy policy, a situation that contributed to Ms. Zuckerberg's contretemps.

The story, as reported by the Los Angeles Times, was picked up in today's siliconvalley.com. Who said the day after Christmas was a "dead" news day?

Danica Patrick's Vehicle for her Divorce Announcement? Facebook

Danica Patrick
(photo from Fox News)

Keeping her fans informed of her public, yet personal life, race car diva Danica Patrick let the world know via Facebook that her marriage is kaput. A story about Patrick's announcement appeared in today's online edition of the Chicago Tribune.

Now that Ms. Patrick is available, I wonder how many gentlemen's libidos have started their engines just thinking about her?

Former Clinton Press Sec Joe Lockhart Leaves Facebook

Joe Lockhart
(photo from allthingsd.com)

Joe Lockhart, Bill Clinton's press secretary from 1998 to 2000, is saying sayonara to Facebook, his current employer. The news was released on a late Friday, thus guaranteeing minimal coverage except to those consiglieri paying attention. The story, with some additional juicy details about other recent, high-level Facebook departures, originally appeared in allthingsd.com, a website owned by Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Lockhart is a highly seasoned political communications expert, having worked as press secretary for Democratic presidential hopefuls Walter Mondale, Mike Dukakis, and Paul Simon (no, not the singer). What's interesting is Facebook's connection to Democratic Party insiders. In addition to Lockhart, Facebook board member and operational brain, Sheryl Sandberg, worked as Larry Summers' chief of staff during his stint as Clinton's Treasury secretary. It's also instructive to recall that, just prior to the opening of the movie The Social Network, Mark Zuckerberg donated millions to allegedly help the public schools in the very Democratic city of Newark, New Jersey. This highly publicized event, principally designed to deflect the The Social Network's highly unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg, included Democratic stalwarts such as Newark mayor Cory Booker and major Obama media pal Oprah Winfrey.

Connecting the dots of these relationships suggest the Land of Like has obtained political protection from unwanted pressure or inquiry. That situation could change very quickly if Barack Obama becomes a one-term president.

Man Updates Facebook Page While Holding Hostage

FYI: according to the Reuters story
which appeared in siliconvalley.com,
Facebook took down the perp's page
at the request of law enforcement.

Crimes of passion, crimes for material gain, or crimes of lust for power, have taken a new twist with developments in social media.

The subject of the post, taken word-for-word from siliconvalley.com, tells the story. The episode took place in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Friday. It's wild to envision someone in the midst of a criminal act reaching out to his or her Facebook "friends" list and providing a psychological window into their activity and thinking. What kind of community dialogue would be generated? What about "likes"? Yikes!

One missing element was a perpetrator-generated YouTube video of the incident, but I may be premature in that assertion.

Washington State Allows Voter Reg Via Facebook

Thanks to a big assist from a Microsoft app,  the state of Washington is now permitting voter registration via Facebook. Just thought you would want to know. The scoop came from arstechnica.com.

Social Media Firms Unplug Their Telephone Customer Service

One aspect of the technology "revolution" is its nearly religious belief that greater efficiency leads to a greater good. This largely unquestioned perspective has created commercial drives in which individual users become data points rather than living, breathing human beings. When a tech firm's system doesn't work, does not adequately serve a user's legitimate expectations, or leaves a user puzzled, what happens?

Well, don't expect social media or search engine customer service over the phone, according to a story buried in slow-news Saturday editions of The New York Times, Reporter Amy O'Leary's useful article details how tech's titans disdain offering any telephone service at all. Instead, users are typically directed to a relevant website, where supposedly they will find succor from the service providers.

The delicious irony in the story is O'Leary's attempts to get firms to speak on the telephone for comment on her piece. "Officials at Facebook, Google and Twitter (all reached first by e-mail) say their users prefer to go online, finding it more pleasant and efficient than wading through a phone tree."

Ah, but social media business development is much more important than the "user experience." As Zendesk chief executive Mikkel Svane noted to O'Leary, the social media firms have "paved the way in large-scale customer service by keeping everything online." However, while social media and search engine firms' ambitions are certainly "large-scale," they have carefully considered how to "small scale" customer service expectation and interaction with a human being to its logical vanishing point.

Mikkel Svane
(photo from Twitter)

In tech's world view, absolutely nothing can be permitted to distract the enterprise from its focus. That includes interactions with human beings, who have an annoying tendency to act out of sync with algorithmically estimated probabilities of behavior. The Times story slyly makes this point by going inside the belly of the data-driven beast:

"In Foursquare's offices in New York, phone calls are considered a distraction to the developers and are conducted away from the main work area, in British-style red phone booths, the company's spokeswoman said, explaining that calls are not part of developer culture."

They aren't part of social media's arrogant perspective on service culture, either.

Judge Turns Thumbs Down On Facebook "Like" As Free Speech

Bad news and Saturdays are historic dance partners. Today's hidden headline comes from Tidewater Virginia, where a US district judge ruled in a case involving Facebook "like" usage and free speech.

The case involved a sheriff who fired six workers for what the law enforcement official claimed was cause. Those fired claimed they were let go because they publicly supported the sheriff's opponent in an election. Some made their political preference known by using Facebook's "like" button.

The judge in the case, Clinton appointee Robert Jackson, ruled against the fired employees. According to an Associated Press report picked up in the San Jose Mercury News, the jurist did not view the "like" button as "expressive speech. In other words, it's not the same as actually writing out a message and posting it on the site."

If the plaintiffs can afford the appeal, one would expect them to pursue this matter in a higher court. It's a fascinating case with profound implications for free speech.

Trust Lost: From Nixon to Google

Earlier today, a widely circulated report noted a Stanford University researcher's findings regarding Google's circumvention of Apple privacy safeguards. To put it mildly, the episode adds to Google's collective black eye over privacy. (Google's ex-CEO Eric Schmidt's announcement today of his intention to sell over two billion in Google stock seemed particularly ill-timed.) However, it would be fatuous to assume such privacy violations were unique to the Mountain View search giant. The sense, from Facebook's outrageous rape of privacy to the everyday data mining that American technocrats are convinced are their entitlement, is that Silicon Valley finds privacy rights simply inconvenient to their firms' ambitions.

It is ironic that Silicon Valley -- a hotbed of libertarian political philosophy -- should treat privacy so cavalierly. A previous generation understood how profoundly invasive and erosive electronic "data collection" -- a/k/a snooping -- can be. I was reminded of this when I read a rather truculent opinion piece in today's Miami Herald. The article, by Glenn Garvin, complained about what the author claimed were the less than virtuous motives of Richard Nixon's nemesis, Deep Throat.

Garvin alleged that Deep Throat, who was the FBI's numero due at the time of the Watergate incident, wanted to become the next J. Edgar Hoover. To that end, Deep Throat used his leaks to reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein to as leverage to ease out DT's bureaucratic obstacles. At that time, privacy was still something Americans of any political persuasion guarded. The notion that a widespread invasion of privacy, managed by a Mafia-like network within the federal government's executive branch, could seize control of the nation was a shivering thought. It was as if the very foundation of American political freedom and hope was being slowly strangled.

Nixon was stopped, though not easily and especially not without resentment from conservatives who saw Tricky Dick's denouement as a plot hatched in the editorial offices of "liberal" newspapers. The current situation, in which fabulously rich enterprises apparently simply flout any inconvenient privacy statutes in their lust for advertising and data dominance, is much more upsetting than Nixon's attempted overthrow of the Constitution.

Who will stand up to Silicon Valley?

Judge Rules Newark Must Produce Facebook Donation E-Mails

According to a story in today's Star-Ledger of Newark, a Superior Court judge ruled earlier today that the city of Newark produce e-mail correspondence related to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million donation to the New Jersey city. The suit, brought by the ACLU on behalf of an organization called the Secondary Parents Council, had its genesis in the intransigence of Newark mayor Cory Booker's administration toward requests for the correspondence. Booker's team was an equal opportunity snubber, as it refused information requests regarding the Facebook largesse from The Star-Ledger and the Associated Press.

At issue is how local residents have been excluded from having any insight or say into the distribution and use of Zuckerberg's donation. For all the flapdoodle about how the money would help Newark schools and the community, the management of the funds has been extraordinarily secretive.

Keep in mind Facebook's wunderkind's highly publicized contribution came as the film The Social Contract, with its highly unflattering portrait of Zuckerberg, was released. Some saw the donation as intended to distract the public from awareness of the Facebook creator's unseemly personality. It also was tied into the politically motivated restructuring of Newark's schools and the emasculation of the city's teacher's union. However, to believe the unlikely quartet of Zuckerberg, Booker, New Jersey governor Chris Christie, and Oprah Winfrey, the donation was all about education, opportunity, and community. For more on this topic, you're welcome to explore my three-part blog post about it.

Too bad no one bothered to ask the city's residents their opinion on the matter.

2011's Top Ten Search Terms on Yahoo, Facebook, and Bing; Yahoo to Terminate Its Iconic Bay Area Bridge Billboard

Did you every wonder what people search for online? Well, the owners of search engines do more than wonder. They keep stats on the public's taste for the truth. Around this time of year, results are released. So, for fans of Kim Kardashian, Lindsay Lohan, and other celebrities who haven't met a camera they haven't liked, ABC News has a report offering a summary of the 2011 search result data for Yahoo, Facebook, and Bing. Dig in and go crazy!

Yahoo's Iconic Billboard Near Bay Bridge Entrance

PS. The San Jose Mercury News reported in today's online edition that Yahoo's billboard at the eastbound I-80 approach to the Bay Bridge will be dismantled. Yahoo, according to the story, has been tightlipped about the report.

Why would Yahoo drop the billboard? Keep in mind the sense that Yahoo is in play, with buyers circling the firm like so many sharks sensing an available victim for their commercial appetites. Perhaps Yahoo is sending the world a signal that times are changing at the still very valuable search firm.

Facebook Acquires Innovative E-Book Publisher Push Pop Press

Push Pop Press, hailed for its genuinely interactive Al Gore book Our Choice, just received an offer from Facebook it could not refuse. As a consequence, the e-book publisher's two founders announced they "were setting off to help design the world's largest book -- Facebook." That's pretty good work, considering the acquisition was made on the basis of one completed e-book and some sexy beta test results.

However, as an April 2011 Podcasting News (PN) story noted, the gold in Push Pop's hills emerges when one examines its "underlying publishing platform." The PN writer, James Lewin, noted its features:

* Easy to Publish -- Layout and publish interactive digital books without writing code

* Mixed Media -- Tell rich stories using text, images, audio, video, images and interactive graphics

* Interactive graphics -- Embed interactive graphics that use the microphone, accelerometer, and more

* Multi-Touch User Interface -- Edge-to-edge content, without any distracting toolbars or buttons

* Visual Table of Contents -- Browse through hundreds of pages quickly and easily

* Pages Load Instantly -- Pages load as fast as your finger can swipe

* Start Reading Immediately -- Start reading the first chapter as the rest of the book downloads in the background

* Updatable Content -- Update your content without having to update the app

* iPad, iPhone & iPod Touch -- Publish one universal app that can be read on an iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch.

The San Jose Mercury News offers a brief, coherent story about the acquisition announcement, and is one of the few articles that notes Push Pop's founders' former employment with Apple. Earlier this year, Wired published a useful piece on the firm's guiding lights and their ambitions. (The above image originally appeared in Wired and shows Push Pop's founders Kimon Tsinteris and Mike Matas.) The TED video linked here shows Matas's address to a March, 2011 Long Beach, California conference in which he introduces the Gore book and its features.