Customer Reviews

Inside Facebook: Life, Work and Visions of Greatness

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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.

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.

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 ::

I was there, so I'm telling you what the start was like. I wrote it in one summer, so it is only 125 pages, but it will give you a feeling for the culture of this unique startup and the people, especially Zuckerberg, who started it.

Really enjoyed reading this. Had some great insight into the beginnings of Facebook and the start of online social networks. Something unanticipated but greatly appreciated was the words of advice for up and coming web entrepreneurs.