The Facebook Effect: Dominating the Way People Communicate

June 22, 2010
David Kirkpatrick | Senior Technology Correspondent, Fortune Magazine

In August, 2008 Facebook signed up its 100 millionth user; eight months later its 200 millionth user signed up. The phenomenal growth rate is unprecedented and not just in the US but around the world. With full, exclusive cooperation of founder Mark Zuckerberg and company leaders, this is the story from its origins in a dorm room at Harvard to the #1 social networking site on the internet. It is a story of vision, tenacity, the refusal to compromise—and the immaturity—that have made the company what it is. It is nothing less than a part of the culture of the 21st century, playing a role in the Presidential election, political protests in Columbia and most recently involved in the 2009 Iranian election.

Speaker Details

David Kirkpatrick is senior editor for Internet and technology at Fortune Magazine and the longtime author of its weekly “Fast Forward” column. He has been writing about the technology industry for nineteen years and developed the Fortune Brainstorm conference and is now organizing a new conference called Techonomy for summer, 2010.