Live Q&A with Mark Zuckerberg
Today, Mark Zuckerberg hosted the second live community Q&A at Facebook Headquarters. You could tell from the start, Mark is a great leader that seeks the input and open communication of the community Facebook serves and his employees. Mark described that every Friday at Facebook HQ, there is a town hall where employees are able to voice their own questions and opinions. He saw such a value in these town halls, that he wanted to open this type of forum to the broader audience of the whole Facebook community to gain deeper insight. During the Q&A session, there was input from his employees throughout. Mark made sure to point out the importance of this dynamic at Facebook. He stated that he wanted his employees to stand up and interrupt if he misspoke and that he nurtured a culture of openness.
What was also clear is that Facebook's mission to share and make the world more open and connected is very much at the heart of every product and initiative they are building. Mark answered questions about the role Facebook plays in cultural and social issues, news, diversity, privacy, and economic disparity. So basically, this Q&A session was a cake walk.
Here are some of the points Mark made that show all the possibilities social media gives us:
- Diversity of opinion: News channels and newspapers only provide a few kinds of voices. Social media offers every single person a channel to broadcast their voice and share what is important to them. "On Facebook you are listening to a broader set of opinions than from any other type of media that you would have consumed."- Mark Zuckerberg
- Elections: Gives elected officials the ability to voice their position and interact with the community in a way that can't be twisted by intermediaries. It was recently used as the primary platform in the political elections in India and Indonesia for this very reason.
- Safety Check: This is one of Facebook's newer products. It was recently activated in the Philippines. During a natural disaster, it gives people the ability to notify their loved ones that they are safe.
- Connecting to others: Steve Jobs has famously called computers bicycles for minds. Just as computers expand the capacity for thought, social media extends the capacity for maintaining relationships.
I was also really impressed with the many philanthropy efforts of Facebook. Mark said that he wants his employees to feel a sense of mission, "We want to be good citizens in the community." Every employee at Facebook is empowered to help non-profits and small businesses with programs such as FBStart and Non-Profits on Facebook. These options provide many free tools and ads to help these businesses become successful. Each Facebook office around the world has efforts to help their local communities.
Fitting right in with Computer Science Education Week, Mark shares his view on coding: "Coding is one of the few disciplines in the world where you can sit down, write some code for a few hours and come away with something real that real people can use and you've actually produced something concrete and valuable for the world." "If you can code, you have the power to just sit down and make something and no one can stop you from doing that. That is very different from a lot of other disciplines that other people train in. I think it's massively empowering."- Mark Zuckerberg
Facebook has truly become ubiquitous in our daily lives. Thank you Mark Zuckerberg for the fantastic Q&A session today! I believe you are helping shape the world for the better.