Productivity Software Key Element
As Major Players In Social Networking Site Facebook
Branch Out To New Venues
TWO STORIES:
Facebook co-founder Moskovitz leaves to start
group collaboration company
By MATT MARSHALL
The Industry Standard
Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein said this weekend they are leaving Facebook to start their own company.
The moves are just the latest in a steady exodus from Facebook, a trend that has sparked questions about whether the popular social networking company’s culture is changing and whether it is losing its magnetism.
The new company will build tools to facilitate collaboration within the enterprise, according to the duo.
Facebook Co-Founder Departs To Build
Extensible Enterprise Productivity Suite
By Mark Hendrickson
TechCrunch.com
Friday, October 3, 2008; 12:20 PM
Rumors started to leak earlier today that Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz and colleague Justin Rosenstein were leaving to start their own company.
Facebook has since confirmed the rumor to us with a simple quote from Mark Zuckerberg: "Dustin has always had Facebook's best interests at heart and will always be someone I turn to for advice."
Fortunately, Rosenstein (who formerly worked at Google as product manager of Google Page Creator) has posted more information about their reasons for departure in a Facebook note to friends, which we have reproduced with his permission below.
In it, he describes briefly how Moskovitz and he plan to build to an "extensible enterprise productivity suite" that uses Facebook Connect as its user authentication system and borrows many of Facebook's own design conventions. The two of them thought about building this suite from within Facebook but eventually decided that it would make more sense to build it within their own company. The choice quote: "We hope our products will become to your work life what Facebook.com is to your social life."
1 comment:
This is interesting... very telling that they thought about incorporating the enterprise aspect directly into Facebook and then thought better of it.
This will have its pros and cons for users. Pros: Greater security, less "facebook distraction factor", and probably a more customizable application than possible just with "standard facebook." Cons: Yet another platform for communication - which always reinvents the wheel - and yet another walled garden. It depends very much on what kind of functionality you need I suppose.
It better come with deluxe bells and whistles in my opinion, considering the other options out there. Even Ning, the free custom social network, is very flexible and relatively secure. Rollout should be an interesting revelation.
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