SXSW and the Army of the Twitter Snobs
If you haven’t already hear about the Facebook interview at SXSW let me summarize for you. People have finally been able to find a use for Twitter and it involves thumbing your nose at anything that isn’t named Steve Jobs. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s Founder and CEO, was interviewed by Sarah Lacy on March 10th. Apparently, there was numerous Twitter posts coming from the event live about how horrible the interview was. I read a post on TechCrunch about what had occurred and I just had to watch the interview for myself.
I agree that the interview may not have been right for the audience at the event, not that I really think they were trying to focus the interview towards the web developers that were in attendance. Sarah Lacy was not perfect but I think she made the interview somewhat interesting. This interview was setup by Facebook and Sarah was chosen for this interview because she not only has interviewed Mark on more than one occasion but she is releasing a book about Facebook in the near future. I believe Sarah was unfairly targeted at the event and online, not that she helped her own case for sympathy because she lashed out at the audience instead of sucking it up. In my opinion, this interview either should have been held at a different event or should have been made clear that there would be absolutely nothing worthwhile discussed that web developers in the audience would care to hear about.
I personally enjoyed the interview but I wasn’t expecting a technical interview and I am not a web developer. I have seen Mark interviewed a few times and I thought Sarah did a good job of making this interview light-hearted and personable. If anything, Mark should publicly apologize to Sarah for the position they put her in. I don’t think they should at this point though because she didn’t handle herself well at the event and on Twitter, from what I have heard. She lashed out at the event on stage and apparently on Twitter to her critics and that was a huge mistake on her part.
Ok, beyond the actual interview, let me get into Twitter. Someone showed me this website a while ago and I couldn’t understand why anyone would use it. I have now been approached with a legitimate use for it, talking trash in an audience. I know I have secretly talked to my business partners through IM on a conference call. I could just imagine the types of messages that get passed around during boring lectures in high school or college. There is actually a reason to use Twitter because before this I couldn’t even understand how people change their mood and daily statement on Facebook all the time.
Anyhoo, check out the interview for yourself on the TechCrunch post, which is the best version I have found.