Tech journalist David Kirkpatrick's book, the facebook EFFECT, published this year tells the inside story of the company that he says is connecting the World. In 2006 Kirkpatrick wrote an article for Fortune magazine titled Why Facebook Matters. Since his first interviews with Mark Zuckerberg, Mr. Kirkpatrick has been given complete access to the Facebook operation and its key executives.

Kirkpatrick believes that Facebook is more than just another social networking site. He agrees with Mark Zuckerberg who said in one of his early interviews, "Facebook's primary mission is to help people understand the world around them". According to Kirkpatrick, the Facebook founder is wise beyond his 26 years. Even though, when Kirkpatrick told Zuckerberg in 2006 that he thought the Facebook founder was a natural CEO, Zuckerberg acted as if that was an insult.  

Facebook is closing in on five hundred million users and is one of the fastest growing companies in the history of business. Current valuations put the company value at several billion dollars. Zuckerberg has managed to maintain a major percentage of his company stock and control of its board of directors. Given his age and experience that is an amazing feat. When the company does go public, Zuckerberg's stock will make him an instant billionaire.

So why is Facebook different than other social networking sites? Well, first of all, you have to use your real identity. Second, you can control who gets access to your page and personal information. Myspace can't make such claims. Advertising is unobtrusive on Facebook, unlike other social networks. Application development by third party developers provides users with lots of ways to engage their Facebook friends.

Every month, 20 billion pieces of content are posted on user walls. Facebook is the largest photo sharing site on the web, period. Facebook's major focus is to ensure that the information presented to you is the information that really you care about.  Zuckerberg's own wall lists his interests as "openness, breaking things, revolutions, information flow, minimalism, making things, and eliminating everything that doesn't matter".

It is not just about reading the lifestreams of your family and friends, although that is a major attraction for this site. Important news items, political provocations, holiday greetings, revolutions, viral movements, insults, jokes, wisecracks, thought provoking pronouncements, business news, first hand reports of catastrophic events, stock market results and everything else under the sun is posted daily by Facebook users on their walls and on their group pages.

Kirkpatrick says that not everything posted on Facebook is positive. Is living our lives in public a good thing? He wonders if we are becoming a nation of exhibitionists. Posting commentary on the minutiae of our lives can become tedious and a general waste of time. Will living our lives online take away our ability to experience our lives first hand?  Will we lose our ability to socialize face to face? Does Facebook contribute to information overload?   

Other questions Kirkpatrick attempts to answer in his book include: "How will Facebook alter users real-world interactions? How will repressive governments respond to this new form of citizen empowerment? Should a service this large be regulated? How do we feel about a form of communication used by hundreds of millions of people that is completely controlled by one company? Are we risking our freedom by entrusting so much information about our identity to one commercial entity?" Of course, these same questions could have been asked about America's phone company, AT&T, 50 years ago.

I suspect a lot of you reading this blog believe that Facebook is a harmless social network that has allowed us to find old friends and communicate with them as well as every member of our family. Although Kirkpatrick himself admitted that his high school daughter's circle of Facebook friends didn't include him. So the privacy feature does work. I personally believe it is a brilliantly conceived communication link that will change the world in more ways than we can understand at this point. I am not convinced it was designed with that purpose in mind, but it could conceivably evolve in that direction. One thing is for sure. It will be entertaining and enlightening to see where it goes from here.

Is Mark Zuckerberg the next Bill Gates or Steve Jobs? He has brought together a team of experienced executives to give him guidance. Members of his Board of Directors include the founders of Paypal and Netscape. He has a grand vision and all the money he needs to guide his company to become the next Microsoft or Apple. He started his company in a dorm room like Michael Dell. He dropped out of Harvard to take his vision to the next level like Bill Gates. Will he be able to maintain control and take his company all the way to the top? Only time will tell.

The Facebook Effect is an interesting and enlightening insider's look at the early beginnings, current operations and inner workings of Facebook and its inner circle of executives. If social media is on your radar or impacts your business, it is a must read.

What's your take on Facebook and how it might impact on human social interaction and global communications in the wired world? Do you think Mark Zuckerberg will become the next Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? Let us know what you think?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.

Mark Zuckerberg and his colleagues at Facebook believe that by openly acknowledging who we are and behaving consistently among all our friends and business associates we will help create a healthier society. Of course, his business depends on this philosophy. In his book, The Facebook Effect, David Kirkpatrick says that Zuckerberg believes, "that if we live in an ‘open and transparent' world, people will be held to the consequences of their actions and be more likely to behave more responsibly".

In a recently released Pew Internet and American Life Project survey of 895 "tech experts" and "highly engaged internet" users, two thirds responded that today's millennials will continue, as they grow older, to "disclose a great deal of personal information" in order to stay connected, and to "take advantage of social, economic and political opportunities." Bottom line is that the younger generation who has grown up with Myspace and Facebook have no qualms about continuing to post personal information on social media about themselves and their activities throughout their lives.

These are the same people who have posted embarrassing photos and text about their exploits and bad behavior. Some of these people have lost out on good jobs and/or acceptance into graduate programs because of these disclosures on their favorite social media platforms. Have they learned their lessons, or do they just dismiss these missteps as part of becoming an adult?

Is this transparency a good thing? Will it help you expand your professional network? Will it help you land that promotion or get that next dream job by virtue of the fact that your personal postings impress your current or future bosses as much as your resume and job experiences? Mark Zuckerberg hopes so. Or will these postings stifle your career advancement and ruin your chances at moving up the ladder?

According to Zuckerberg, "Having two identities for yourself is an example of a lack of integrity". His thoughts on this topic basically point out that "the level of transparency the world has now won't support having two identities for a person". Because of the proliferation of information about individuals on the internet, the possibility of maintaining separate identities on the web are all but impossible. Eventually one's professional image will be overwritten by their personal image regardless of how hard they try to separate one from the other. Zuckerberg believes you only have one identity. Maybe he has a point, but a lot of older users seem apprehensive about combining their professional and personal identities.

One of Zuckerberg's early investors and mentors, Reid Hoffman, the founder of the professional online network Linkedin, has done his best to discourage users from posting personal information on Linkedin. Reid said, "Mark doesn't believe that social and professional lives are distinct". He went on to say, "That's a classic college student view. One of the things you learn as you get older is that you have these different contexts." Of course, Mark developed the original version of Facebook while he was in college at Harvard. And even today, he is barely older than most college students.

A former Facebook programmer Charlie Cheever thinks that Zuckerberg doesn't believe in privacy. Privacy has been, and remains to be a big issue with Facebook and its users. There have been numerous user revolts on this issue. To Facebook's credit, the company has responded to its users and provided better privacy controls on numerous occasions since its inception. Of course, the question still remains, "Should one company, Facebook, have sole control over the personal information of nearly 500 million users?"

What are the pros of combining your professional and personal personas? Exposure, networking, common interests with those you might want to do business with. The cons are exposure, documented misbehavior, negative networking through guilt by association and political stances that might be unattractive to prospective business partners.

Bottom line: if you don't want your personal information to be mixed in with your professional online presence, you should not go on any form of social media or join any online clubs, political groups, or other associations. Google will make your personal info available to anyone who searches on your name. Yes, you can limit what is seen on Facebook, but sooner or later you will be outed by association or your friends. Whenever you post something online, just remember the whole world is watching and reading.

What's your opinion on this topic? Has social media hurt your career or the career of someone you know? Have you missed out on a job because of your Myspace or Facebook postings? Are you active on social media? Do your friends on Facebook tag your wall with photos of your misbehavior or document your outrageous activities?

My web community, www.boomeropinion.com  is all about capturing and broadcasting opinions and viewpoints. We provide daily polls, discussion forums, and news about critical issues facing America and Baby Boomers. If you are a Baby Boomer and haven't joined us, please consider it. It is free and only takes a minute to join. Coming soon you will be able to create your own polls, initiate discussions on topics you choose and ask questions of the membership. We also have a Twitter page, http://twitter.com@boomeropinion.