Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness [Download: PDF] [Paperback]

Karel Baloun (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 2006

(This is the PDF edition. The Paperback edition is also available, as a different listing. Search for "facebook" and it is one of the first results.) As an early engineer, I was on the inside during Facebook's explosive growth. In Inside Facebook, I'll give you the scoop on the company as it became the premiere online environment for U.S. college students, including how and by whom the products were made, how you can use them best, views on what makes social networks so valuable, and where the industry is headed. You, too, can achieve startup success and attain your greatest dream; I hope to inspire you toward fulfilling your potential.

Product Details

• Paperback: 126 pages
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979142105
• ISBN-13: 978-0979142109
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,410,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not a book, August 25, 2007

By 

Zvikster (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness (Paperback)

This work of the author can not be called a book by any standard. Thin, 122 pages, doubly spaced, with a LOT of white space, this is an attempt of the author to capitalize on his proximity to young entrepreneurs who suddenly struck big. I bought the book guided by the title and anticipating to read about Facebook's corporate culture similarly to serious works like Inside Intel: Andy Grove and the Rise of the World's Most Powerful Chip Company and many others. Instead I found a narcissistic self-portrait with bits and pieces of emotions and half-baked opinions. Simply incoherent. Don't buy it, don't read it. I suspect even Mr. Baloun never read it himself after putting the words together. This comes as close to fraud as I ever saw in the publishing business. I intend to demand my money back from Amazon. I just hope he is a better engineer, than he is a writer. Horrible.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars bizarrely bad, December 29, 2007

By 

John Scholes (London) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness (Paperback)

I joined several social networking sites out of curiosity, but I rarely use them. I cannot really figure out what advantage they have over email, flickr, IM etc. There are few books around on FB, so I bought this one, hoping for some insight into what I was missing.

It is extraordinarily badly written. It rambles. It is full of boring asides.

Karel Baloun was apparently well-placed to write a fascinating book about the first of FB, but it was not to be.

It is short (about 130 pages). That would be fine if they were full of insight, but they aren't.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I've been looking for a book like this for the last year, since beginning my work on "Youand.", March 21, 2007

By 

José Angel Santana, PhD - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness (Paperback)

Folks,

So glad this book exists!

If you have a value full idea, an abundance of passion to share that value with others, (feel a bit alone:) and need a roadmap/a blueprint, this is a wonderful book to read.

Inspiring, encouraging, practical, strategic, a narrative tool kit, so fun to read, filled with heart.

Help full.

It has done a great deal to demystify what it takes to create something substantial for and with others in our Web 2.0 epoch. If you don't know what Web 2.0 is, like me until I read this book, and want to create and participate on the Internet with others, it's my opinion that you just must read this book.

If you are familiar with Web 2.0, you already know that you must read this book.

I guess I'm saying, that if you've found yourself to this review, how could you not read this book?

But most importantly for me, it has helped me come much closer to learning how the Internet can help bring people closer together in a more substantial way, which is my passion.

Connect,
José Angel Santana, Ph.D.
Youand - the art of mutual understanding

"The final frontier may be human relationships, one person to another."
-- Buzz Aldrin, Astronaut

:: Afterthought: The email links alone and footnotes of the .pdf version of "Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness" are worth the price of purchase. ::
:: Related: Web 2.0 Report ::