Go Big, Go Bold

Facebook and YouTube Will Reduce Islamic Extremism

In many parts of the Middle East Islamic extremism is a problem. Hezbollah, Hamas and many mainstream mosques in Saudi Arabia indoctrinate their young from an early age. In many cases they teach hatred of the west and Israel, the “infidels” of the world. We are painted as heartless, unjust and immoral people.  Not knowing any better, many children in the Middle East believe what they are told. Think of it from their perspective, their teachers, religious and community leaders whom their parents and neighbors respect, surely wouldn’t lie to them.

Maybe, just maybe, Facebook and YouTube will encourage the offspring of Muslim extremists to dismiss the beliefs of their forefathers. An open, accessible web offers young Muslims the opportunity to peer into our society and examine it for themselves. YouTube is an easy, fun way to do this. Everyone loves videos, music and laughing which YouTube is great for. After observing our society through video and perhaps even watching some people their age in this country behaving in similar ways that they do, laughing, playing, enjoying life, they will likely begin developing a sense of empathy for our people and way of life.

Similarly, as Facebook spreads around the world and becomes the global social network it has the potential to become a shared experience upon which we can draw. Two things are particularly interesting:

1. Facebook can be a tool to communicate with and better understand people from other societies. One way this is playing out in my life is via Texas Hold’em Poker on which I play with people from all over the world. Being in a virtual room and interacting with Russians, Chinese, Iraqis, etc helps drive home the idea that we really aren’t that different from one another. I bet people from other countries are coming to similar realizations.
2. As everyone’s childhood friends travel through a global society, they take us with them. This gives each one of us a view into cities, countries and ways of life that we previously didn’t have access to. Seeing our friends in those societies helps us understand and develop empathy toward them.

In the case of Muslim extremism, Mark Zuckerberg during his keynote at SWSX gave an example of this already happening in Lebanon. Apparently some Lebanese Muslims are already getting a taste of the west through the experiences and development of their friends who move to Europe and the US.

The bottom line is that the internet is a powerful medium which is bringing the world closer together. The impact of services like YouTube and Facebook may be profound.

Free information. Believe it. Embrace it. Love it. It’s changing the world.

Facebook: The Social Operating System of the 21st Century

DOS : Microsoft as F8 : Facebook.

When Microsoft first created DOS (the Disk Operating System) for IBM PCs, they were thought to be a small and somewhat limited company. After all, in most people's eyes DOS was just a tool that people used to interact with their computers... and really, how much value was in that?

As it turned out, a lot. Once development on the MSDOS platform opened up, it quickly became the foundation upon which every piece of software was built. Before we knew it, Microsoft was the center of the computer universe. Everyone needed Microsoft because everything computer-related depended on their platform.

A few weeks ago Facebook launched F8, its "Social Platform", which allows developers to create social applications that tap into Facebook’s enormous distribution. Instead of being a tool that allows people to connect to their computers, Facebook allows users to interact with something much more important to them - their friends. As such, Facebook holds an even more attractive position than Microsoft ever did. As software falls and the web rises, Facebook becomes king.

Furthermore, while Microsoft stood to lose its customers every time they bought a new PC that did not come with a MS operating system preloaded on it (and hence, they fought to make sure it was distributed with every machine), there is no such challenge for Facebook. The switching costs are simply too high. Facebook users have invested so much time and energy in creating their profiles, networking with friends, uploading pictures and building up social capital that they stand to lose a great deal by leaving. Better still for Facebook, every remaining reason to switch to another social network is currently being developed by at least thr ee different development teams across the world at this very moment due to F8.

Watch as Facebook quickly becomes the center of the web universe just as Microsoft did for the computer universe. As the web soon extends onto our cell phones, TVs and eventually everything, Facebook may be in the more attractive position of the two. Perhaps it's F8?