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The Facebook Imperative Cannot Be Stopped

10 Mar

TechCrunchIT

Editor's note: This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. In it, he responds to critics of his last guest post arguing that enterprise software should be more like Facebook.Two weeks ago on TechCrunch I posted “The Facebook Imperative,” which posed a simple question, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” It was the next iteration of the question I asked in 1999 that spawned salesforce.com, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com.” If you have read my book, Behind The Cloud, you are well aware how that one question launched a company, and a movement. Its been an exciting decade. But the real excitement is just starting.Frankly, I’ve been amazed by the huge amount of responses, tweets, and comments (aka “the ruckus across the blogoshere,” as Joe McKendrick calls it). It only strengthens my conviction that we are about to see the greatest revolution in enterprise software, ever. Well, really, the most exciting revolution in computing, ever. It will create more value for users, customers, and vendors by an order of magnitude over what we saw in the last wave. And, it’s really starting to happen right now. It is realtime. It is social. It is mobile. And, it is about time. Literally, it is about productivity.

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The Facebook Imperative Cannot Be Stopped

10 Mar

TechCrunch

Editor’s note: This guest post is written by Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of salesforce.com. In it, he responds to critics of his last guest post arguing that enterprise software should be more like Facebook.
Two weeks ago on TechCrunch I posted “The Facebook Imperative,” which posed a simple question, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Facebook?” It was the next iteration of the question I asked in 1999 that spawned salesforce.com, “Why isn’t all enterprise software like Amazon.com.” If you have read my book, Behind The Cloud, you are well aware how that one question launched a company, and a movement. Its been an exciting decade. But the real excitement is just starting.
Frankly, I’ve been amazed by the huge amount of responses, tweets, and comments (aka “the ruckus across the blogoshere,” as Joe McKendrick calls it). It only strengthens my conviction that we are about to see the greatest revolution in enterprise software, ever. Well, really, the most exciting revolution in computing, ever. It will create more value for users, customers, and vendors by an order of magnitude over what we saw in the last wave. And, it’s really starting to happen right now. It is realtime. It is social. It is mobile. And, it is about time. Literally, it is about productivity.
I’m energized by the excitement I see for a new generation of collaboration software in the enterprise to replace antiquated Microsoft Sharepoint servers and IBM’s Lotus Notes. I’ve enjoyed seeing my observation—that Lotus Notes was conceived before Mark Zuckerberg—reverberate around the web. But, the reality is the Facebook Imperative contained more than a funny line. It hit a nerve. We are all responding—debating—a question that is an imperative because we all need to take software to a new level, and now is the time. Microsoft and IBM have maintained the status quo on enterprise collaboration software too long, and it’s time for a change.
There are an overwhelming number of you who agree that its time to transform the business conversation the same way Facebook has changed the consumer conversation. We are betting salesforce.com’s future on it. Approximately 40% of companies are already deploying or planning to deploy a social computing platform, a number that’s expected to rise, says Irwin Lazar of Nemeretes Research. Not everyone agrees, mostly the vendors that are milking their cash cows. But, make no mistake about it, this generation of social platforms is very different than the last.
Charles Zedlewski emerged from a long blogging hiatus to argue that Facebook is designed for entertainment—not productivity. Well, that’s not surprising given that he works for SAP, one of the companies I have previously referred to as “innovationless”—in my view they remain the Anti-Cloud. Their actions speak for themselves. Still, I’m astounded that more enterprises haven’t figured out how to tap into the real collaborative power of Facebook and Twitter, and the new social models that they have pioneered.
I consider Facebook and Twitter—and the ability to tap into my network of friends and followers—one the most productive ways I can start my day. Using these new Internet phenoms, I’ve tested new ad campaigns and elicited great customer responses, promoted my book to a large audience of people who cared, and with the help of my network, even named new products—all before I sat down for breakfast. I’m not alone; ask Vinnie Mirchandani for a sneak preview of his new book and read how Starbucks, Avon, and Pepsi are using these new social services to increase productivity in their enterprises. Or, look at how Causes, one of Facebook’s most popular apps, is having a fascinating impact on the future of philanthropy.
While my admiration for Facebook is no secret, the fact is that the Facebook Imperative—much like The Amazon Imperative of 1999—is just a metaphor. Like all metaphors, they are terrific catalysts to introduce an idea and orient people. They are rooted in inspiration, but they do not funnel down to the granular details. And, there are details that make this movement entirely new in practice. The power of this new model is to create the next level of productivity, collaboration, and learning in the enterprise. And, I see it happening now in our own company.
For years we’ve been reading about the potential for institutional memory to transform a corporation into a learning organization. But, have we seen it happen beyond very few unique organizations? A true paradigm shift occurs when the barriers of entry are removed for everyone. That is changing fast. With these new social models, there is a way to immediately leverage the knowledge of an organization. People with expertise and relevance are instantly looped in, can participate in the conversation, collaborate, and make contributions more simply than ever before. That will be the catalyst of this new productivity revolution—delivered through these new social enterprise platforms.
We have deployed Salesforce Chatter internally through our own beta program, and we are now using the social models proven by Facebook and Twitter to run our company. Our new social enterprise is built atop our existing business information and applications. It’s not partitioned off from other enterprise applications, but is an integrated part of it—offering a new view of the data that is more productive and easier to use. Through enterprise sharing models, filtering and discovery tools, users have full flexibility over which people and data they follow—allowing them to fully maximize the value of their own feeds and eliminating the risk of “pollutants” some critics fear.
I have learned more about my own company in the last three weeks using Salesforce Chatter than I have in the last three years. It reminds me of the time we went live with http://ideas.salesforce.com. The awareness I have today of what is happening with our employees, our customers, our products, our customer service escalations, and even the deals we are closing is spectacular. Social computing for the enterprise is about seeing what matters to your company, what is happening with your products, and among your people. It’s about the information you need to make decisions finding you. I’m amazed at the potential of this technology. There is just no way I can explain it to you in writing, so here is an actual screen shot that I took off my desktop to give you an idea of the flow (click to enlarge):
It is time to let go of the past and start to create a compelling future for the software industry. I’m energized by the skeptics. It’s familiar. They all eventually convert to what’s important to customers, or become increasingly irrelevant. You don’t have to look any farther than last week when Steve Ballmer spoke to the University of Washington telling them Microsoft was finally “All-In” the cloud. Well, that only took a decade or two. No more software plus services, now they are 100% cloud too. Sure.
I’m living in the post-PC revolution. I’m in a desktopless world that is about feeds and profiles running in all my browsers and mobile devices, and interacting in exciting new ways. It doesn’t matter if I am in the office, at home, or at Starbucks—I am productive wherever I am. The enterprise is not just going to the cloud, it’s now going social, and it’s going mobile. Facebook and Twitter have shown us the way. Like Microsoft, and IBM, not everyone has to get it yet, but eventually they all will. As they say: Shift happens.
CrunchBase Information
Marc Benioff
Salesforce
Information provided by CrunchBase

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Facebook calls for 'iconic games'

10 Mar

From BBC News

Facebook calls on game designers to make an iconic title, such as Mario or Halo, specifically for the social network.

Read more over at news.bbc.co.uk
How big is the Facebook economy?

10 Mar

www.guardian.co.uk
Investors are pumping more and more money into web services that are heavily reliant on Facebook. So how big is the economy around the world's most popular social network?
An email came through to me last night that, in many respects, is the stock-and-trade of the startup world: a team of entrepreneurs company has received some funding.
In this case, the site in question is the Paris-based Smartdate, and its received $2.2m from investors to try and build its idea of using Facebook data as the basis of a matchmaking service.
So far, so normal. We've heard a great deal of this over the years; venture capitalists and investment funds putting money into companies that are building web services.
But there's something else going on here. From the swathes of press releases and funding announcements I trawl through each day, it feels to me like we're hearing much more recently about sites specifically and publicly built using Facebook as a platform. In many cases, they are almost entirely reliant on Facebook to provide their link to users.
Now, in part, that's no surprise: building up an ecosystem around Facebook is something that the company has tried very hard to do with F8 and Facebook Connect - and it's a smart move, because they know that when lots of people are invested in your success, you are less vulnerable to competitors.
But if so many people are pumping into companies that are almost entirely reliant on the world's largest social networking site, exactly how big is the economy around Facebook?
Let's see if we can work it out.
We know from a number of reports and internal estimates that Facebook itself is due to post somewhere upwards of $1bn in revenue for 2010, but I'm more interested in what the other companies are doing.
What levels of investment are going? How many companies rely on Facebook to keep themselves going? The conservative estimate must stretch into several billions of dollars worth of business at least.
After all, the headline sites who make the most from this business are worth hundreds of millions - and some are even looking to launch on the stock market. Even if they don't entirely base their business on Facebook (in many cases, they are available on - or partner with - other social networks too) the spread of users suggests that they're heavily invested in it.
• Back in November, Electronic Arts bought social gaming site Playfish, in a deal we are now told was worth around $275m.
• Meanwhile Zynga, another developer of popular games (like ) has already taken more than $200m of venture capital.
• Other companies making applications include Slide (also closely linked with MySpace but funded to the tune of $78m); Mindjolt (recently bought by MySpace co-founder Chris DeWolfe, funding not public); and of course FriendFeed (bought by Facebook for around $50m).
• On top of that, there's a huge number of companies like the aforementioned Smartdate, Plancast ($800,000); and a whole bunch of companies pushed forward by Facebook's own $10m fbFund.
That's just the start.
What other companies do you know that are reliant on Facebook? How big do you think the Facebook economy really is? Stick any information you know in the comments - once we've got an idea how big this is, we can start thinking about whether it's a viable ecosystem, a bubble or a house of cards.
Bobbie Johnson

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IPCC to investigate Facebook case

9 Mar

The Guardian World News
Force says it has referred Ashleigh Hall's murder to watchdog after it delayed issuing wanted alert
Merseyside police today voluntarily referred itself to the Independent Police Complaints Commission over its handling of sex offender Peter Chapman, who went on to rape and murder a teenager who he met using a fake Facebook profile.
Chapman, 33, was given a life sentence yesterday at Teesside crown court and was told by a judge that it will be at least 35 years before he is eligible for parole.
After realising Chapman, a registered sex offender, had vanished from his home in Merseyside early last year, police did not issue a national wanted alert until nine months later.
Chapman lured 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall to her death in October, just a month after the alert was issued. Chapman posted a fake photograph on Facebook and purported to be a handsome teenager half his true age to ensnare his victim.
It emerged today that he was last seen at his home in Kirkby on 29 August 29 2008. An officer spoke to him on the telephone the following month ‑ on 24 September ‑ about a forklift truck course he was attending.
Merseyside police said that, up to this point, he "had remained fully compliant with his registration requirements" imposed on him by being on the sex offenders' register. He was on the register following his conviction for raping two prostitutes, which led to a seven-year prison sentence.
Chapman was released on licence in 2001 and ordered to comply with the strict terms of the register, such as informing police when he changed address. Officers visited his home on 6 January 2009 to discuss a traffic matter, but he was out. Different officers were supposed to visit him a month later in line with his parole checks but again he was out. The force maintains that officers then worked to establish his whereabouts locally.
But it was not until September 2009 ‑ a month before he murdered Ashleigh Hall ‑ that police issued a nationwide wanted alert.
The force referred its handling and review of the Chapman case to the IPCC after the home secretary, Alan Johnson, demanded answers. Johnson called on the police to "respond" and said lessons "needed to be learned" following Ashleigh's murder.
Today, a spokesman said: "Merseyside police can confirm that an internal review was carried out following the arrest of Peter Chapman in October last year. Following the review, a number of procedural improvements were identified and subsequently implemented.
"However, in view of the public interest and concerns raised following the conviction of Peter Chapman and to ensure complete transparency in terms of this particular matter, the force has referred it to the Independent Police Complaints Commission."
The Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, Chris Huhne, said the sex offenders register should be upgraded to take account of the use of the internet. He said: "We do not even require the registration of IP and email addresses of sex offenders, which has now become typical in the United States. This would allow police to monitor social networking activity."
He also called for <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/09/ukcrime-facebook" title="Facebook to fix the "glaring failure" on its website">Facebook to fix the "glaring failure" on its website, to include the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (Ceop) centre button, which allows users to understand risks and to report suspicious activity.
The National Association of Probation Officers has cast doubt on whether the authorities have the resources to effectively monitor some 50,000 sexual or violent offenders. Its assistant secretary, Harry Fletcher, said: "It is virtually impossible for the police to have all but a handful of these people under 24-hour surveillance.
"[Peter Chapman] is clearly dangerous; he uses Facebook to contact a victim so there's lessons there, he uses many aliases and he travels round the country. But unless we have literally thousands and thousands of more police officers involved in surveillance, then these things are going to continue to happen."
Helen Carter

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Life for jealous Facebook killer

9 Mar

Scotsman.com

A jealous lover has been given a life jail term and ordered to serve at least 22 years for killing his girlfriend after seeing her on Facebook with another man.

Read more over at news.scotsman.com
'Facebook killer' jailed for life

8 Mar

New Zealand Herald - World

A 33-year-old UK man has been jailed for life after admitting the kidnap, rape and murder of a teenager he met on the Facebook social networking site, Reuters reported today.Convicted sex offender Peter Chapman had cultivated...

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Facebook killer jailed for life

8 Mar

Reuters - UK Top News

LONDON (Reuters) - A 33-year-old man was jailed for life on Monday after admitting the kidnap, rape and murder of a teenager he met on the Facebook social networking site.

Read more over at uk.reuters.com
Man admits Facebook killing

8 Mar

The Guardian World News
Peter Chapman, who used fake Facebook profile to lure Darlington student, changes plea at Teesside trial
The sex offender Peter Chapman todayadmitted kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenager he ensnared using a fake profile on Facebook.
Chapman, 33, of no fixed address, changed his plea as he was due to face trial at Teesside crown court for the killing of Ashleigh Hall, a 17-year-old student.
Her body was found dumped in a farmer's field near Sedgefield, County Durham, in October. Ashleigh, from Darlington, was strangled and left near a known lovers' lane.
Chapman pleaded guilty also to failing to notify police of a change of address, as required by the sex offenders register.
Graham Reeds QC, prosecuting, said Chapman used the fake identity of a teenage boy to entice Ashleigh into meeting him.
Chapman had created the fake profile on Facebook, and used pictures of a boy in his late teens to lure the student to him.
"The photograph is not of him. It is of a bare-chested and good-looking boy who is apparently in his late teens," Reeds told the court. "The defendant is a somewhat plainer looking man who could pass for being rather older than his 33 years.
"The prosecution case is that the defendant used this handsome alter ego to entice 17-year-old Ashleigh Hall into meeting him. When she met him, on 25 October last year, he kidnapped, raped and murdered her."
The prosecutor said the teenager suffered from low-esteem, and boys were uninterested in her.
"According to her friend, Ashleigh was interested in boys but they, generally, were not interested in her," he said, adding that her friends thought that if a male did show her attention "she would likely be flattered by it".
The night before Ashleigh's body was found, she told her mother she was going to stay with a friend, but she made the fateful decision to meet Chapman instead.
Chapman, who was brought up by his grandparents in Stockton-on-Tees, has a history of sexual offending, it has since emerged. He has been the subject of several sexual assault investigations, beginning when he was 15. In 1996, the then 19-year-old was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment for raping two prostitutes at knifepoint. He was released in 2001.
The unemployed defendant, who used to live in Kirkby, Liverpool, and has links to Teesside, was arrested by traffic police on suspicion of minor motoring offences soon after he left her fully clothed body. He was held for questioning in Middlesbrough, where he asked to speak to detectives, and the routine inquiry took a more sinister turn.
He led police to the spot, near a lovers' lane, where Ashleigh's body was found, almost 24 hours after she left the family home.
In the days after the killing, Ashleigh's 39-year-old mother, Andrea, called for the return of the death penalty for killers.
Before Chapman's conviction, she added: "Whoever did this is going to go prison and sleep in a comfortable bed, but one day they will be out. They will be living and breathing as normal. But my daughter's life had been ended at 17 – and my life has ended because she is not here."
Ashleigh studied childcare at college in Darlington and helped her mother bring up the children.
Her mother recalled the horror of hearing a police officer answer her daughter's phone after she tried to contact Ashleigh's mobile 30 times on the day she disappeared.
She said: "I could understand it if Ashleigh had died because of illness. But to actually have someone take someone's life is just unbearable. Ashleigh was my rock."
Her daughter, like many teenagers, loved chatting to friends online, and spent much of her spare cash on her mobile phone so she could text them.
Her mother said: "Ashleigh wasn't a bad kid. She wasn't naughty. She made one mistake and has paid for it with her life."
Durham police led the inquiry, which involved contacting 2,500 people who knew Chapman through internet sites.
Helen Carter

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Woman murdered for Facebook photo

5 Mar

From BBC News

A woman is stabbed to death by her ex-lover who flew from Trinidad after seeing a picture of her with her new boyfriend on Facebook.

Read more over at news.bbc.co.uk