Kirkpatrick shares 10 lessons from Facebook

Contrary to what “The Social Network” would have movie-goers believe, David Kirkpatrick said Mark Zuckerberg has no trouble with women.

That, among other inaccuracies in the Oscar-winning movie, were exposed Thursday, when Kirkpatrick delivered a speech at UNC as part of the Roy H. Park Distinguished Lecture Series.

“He isn’t like the movie,” he said. “He is not angry. He is an incredibly positive and confident person. He is not neurotic and has no trouble with women.”

Kirkpatrick, the author who literally wrote the book on Zuckerberg with “The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World,” discussed 10 lessons from Facebook before a packed crowd in Carroll Hall.

In one lesson, titled “It’s hard to hide,” Kirkpatrick said the world is becoming more transparent — and some people are wary of the amount of personal information on the site.

“The New York Department of Motor Vehicles knows less about me than Facebook does,” he said. “Facebook is the first universal directory that has ever existed.”

Kirkpatrick described Zuckerberg as likely unimpressed with having 750 million followers.

Rather, he said Zuckerberg won’t be satisfied until he realizes it’s impossible to get the entire world.

“It is the reason he gets up in the morning,” Kirkpatrick said.

Kirkpatrick estimated that Facebook will hit 1 billion members within a year, but with this viral growth will come more attempts at regulation.

“Facebook has gotten a lot of privacy pressure,” he said.

“It is easier to find out more stuff about more people, but that is exactly what he is trying to do. He pays attention to how people are acting, not who is complaining.”

Kirkpatrick made several predictions for the future of entrepreneurship in social networking, saying he thinks Facebook and Skype will become business partners, and that Zuckerberg will one day be the richest man in the world.

He added that the recent protests in North Africa and the Middle East weren’t the first to have roots in Facebook.

In 2008, 32-year-old Colombian engineer Oscar Morales made a Facebook group at 3 a.m. sparked by his frustration with the country’s Marxist FARC rebels and invited 100 people to it.

One month later, a demonstration Morales started through the group saw about 1.5 million people speak out against the rebels.

Ryan Thornburg, a professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, required some of his classes to attend.

“Students should think about their future and entrepreneurship,” he said.

Not everyone in the audience was a fan of the site, though.

“All of us use Facebook but don’t think about it that critically,” senior Hannah Taylor said.

“I don’t usually like Facebook. It is a constant annoyance, drawing us in like a magnet.”

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