[1] Facebook was launched in February 2004 as an alternative to the traditional student directory Its initial success with college students was greatly attributed to the provision of an information service that was not available offline – an interactive student directory containing each student’s class schedule and social network Facebook did not create a community where one never existed before; rather they provided an important information and communication service to a pre-existing offline community [2] While students already had a loose affiliation with all fellow students at a college, they didn’t have an easy way to learn more about their fellow students outside their direct social network Given the large class sizes at most universities today, students don’t have the opportunity to interact with very many of their fellow classmates during class Facebook organized students by class schedule for the first time, making it possible to learn more about that classmate you might have a crush on More importantly, initial Facebook usage was indeed driven by dating type activity – checking people out, learning more about gettogethers, light tracking type of activity, etc [3] Remarkably, Facebook made important product decisions that ensured harmony and trust between the offline community and the online service Facebook originally limited membership to those users who could verify they had a “.edu” e-mail address for the college they attend Facebook also placed limits on the ability to search or browse users to the college that the user attends These measures aim to make users feel that the site is exclusive and limited to members in their offline community (colleges and universities) In the early days of Facebook, something like 30% of users actually posted their cell phone number on their profile This percentage has dramatically increased, which supports the notion that users trust who is viewing their profile [4] Facebook has recently opened its doors to users outside the edu networks To accomplish this, they have created “networks” High schools, employers and geographic areas are, essentially, what colleges were to the original Facebook When you join one of these “networks,” you can only view others in the selfdesignated network Additionally, Facebook has implemented a number of privacy controls that allow users to control exactly who gets to see the information they provide [5] So who is it that creates such a revolutionary social networking website? Well, the “face” of Facebook is Mark Zuckerberg Back in February 2004, when Facebook was founded, he was an undergraduate student at Harvard Two other students, Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes were the second and third employees of the company This added a level of credibility to the site in the minds of the student users It was something one of them had created, not something fed to them by a “company” in the traditional sense It was a place that they could trust because one of their own had made it COMPREHENSION A ARE THESE SENTENCES TRUE OR FALSE? JUSTIFY Facebook was in the beginning founded to help students create a new community Facebook once limited its access to those who had a ".edu" email address Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook by himself B ANSWER THE QUESTIONS Why didn’t students at the university use to interact with their classmates in class? State two measures Facebook took to make users feel that the site is exclusive and limited to members in their offline community? What made students trust Facebook? C COMPLETE THE SENTENCES Facebook owes its early success with students to……………………………………………………………………………… Facebook was initially used by students for……………………………………………………………………………………… Facebook has implemented a number of privacy controls so as to…………………………………………………… D FIND IN THE TEXT WORDS THAT MEAN ALMOST THE SAME AS existing (§1): to network §2): _ set up (§5): _ E WHAT DO THE UNDERLINED WORDS IN THE TEXT REFER TO? their:……………………………… the site:……………………… them:………………………………