The Facebook Effect by David Kirkpatrick journalistic biography of the Facebook company from its start in Harvard dorms, to its rise in the Silicon Valley.
The book is a compelling read in entrepreneurship as Facebook espouses the new business culture of giving value first and seeking money later, if at all. It is difficult not to admire facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg for his idealism to try create something great, and to only think about money as an afterthought. Reading the book it is easy to get the impression that success in business come from action and doing what excites you, not worry about the bottom line or getting things "perfect and right" for the customer. Doing the former tends to take care of the latter anyway.
The book also engages in a lot of theories and predictions on the future of the internet, to the potential dominance and ubiquity of social networks like facebook, vs. an internet still largely driven by search. I do not know how to look at these theories, or what to think about them. Certainly, facebook is as much a social phenomenon as a company, and like most business, it comes down to trying to manage the natural impulses of people while creating value. It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the future...
