Web 2.0 Summit: Panel on Facebook as a Platform
by John Paczkowski
Posted on October 18, 2007 at 10:19 AM PT
Discussion is led by entrepreneur and start-up adviser Dave McClure, with Seth Goldstein (CEO, SocialMedia.com), Ali Partovi (CEO, iLike), Keith Rabois (VP, Slide) and Lance Tokuda (CEO, RockYou) as panelists.
McClure: How many of you in the audience think the Facebook platform announcement was the most important tech event of 2007? Smattering of hands. Clearly, the audience hasn’t yet realized the vast implications of Vampires, Zombies, iLike and Pop Ur Zit.
McClure then says the announcement of the Facebook platform was the most important tech event of 2007 and perhaps even the most important event since Google’s IPO.
(For Mark Zuckerberg, maybe.)
Sweet! Lance “If you told me you were going to write me a check for $10 million for my Facebook widget, I’d say, ‘Forget it’ “ Tokuda is a panelist! (Wonder if he’ll take $10-million-and-1 for his Super Wall widget during the Q&A.)
Oh my. Lots of irrational Zuckeruberance onstage right now. Apparently Kara Swisher’s “Facebook Apps Are for Toddlers” post did not go over well with the current panel, which is giving her a big ol’ Facebook developer pig pile for colorfully describing their work as “silly, useless and time-wasting.” To these folks, “silly, useless and time-wasting” is apparently a business model. “Kara’s argument is ridiculous,” says Rabois. “Why do people watch movies and TV? Because they’re bored or looking for something to do to relieve stress in their lives. Apps are providing entertainment to users.”
High point: Takuda volunteers to build a Facebook widget just for Kara. Wonder if it will be anything like Super Wall–based on a pre-existing Facebook application and easily obsoleted.
Feels like a good time to duck out and boost my Facebook Vampire stats …
Comments
Can we have just one week without a Facebook or Apple article? I know that both are hot, but every freaking post is about one or the other. I’m not a power user of Facebook, but still use it, I just get sick of hearing Facebook this, Facebook that, in every single article that you run. There are thousands of amazing sites online, but this is the only one that anyone seems to care about. Maybe I’m just missing something, but I’m seriously starting to get Facebooked out. You should focus more on the companies that people don’t know about, instead of the ones that they already follow.
Posted by Davis Freeberg at October 18th, 2007 at 2:46 pmI agree with Kara. Tired of all the facebook hype. See: http://www.relevantlyspeaking......ature.html
Posted by Trip Foster at October 18th, 2007 at 10:11 pm