Did Mark Zuckerberg's Inspiration for Facebook Come Before Harvard?
By now, we are all familiar with Mark Zuckerberg's success story. The explosive international growth of Facebook to over 200 million users continues to land the young founder and CEO in top news stories worldwide. Recently, Time Magazine named Zuckerberg one of the world's most influential people of 2008, and Fast Company named Facebook number 15 in its list of the world's 50 most innovative companies of 2009. At just 23 years of age, Zuckerberg even briefly made Forbes' 400 richest Americans list, temporarily giving him the title of World's Youngest Billionaire.
However we have heard very few stories about Zuckerberg and the inspiration behind Facebook during the period prior to February 4th, 2004, the day he launched Facebook from his Harvard dorm room. In this post we tell that story.
The stories we hear these days about Zuckerberg in popular media tend to follow a common sensationalist pattern: "super-smart kid invents a tech phenomenon from his Harvard dorm room, drops out, and changes the world." It's a classically framed, Bill Gates-esque story of success driven by intelligence and ambition. What's most intriguing about the Zuckerberg story, however, isn't that he dropped out of Harvard and became a billionaire at 23.
The reason we hear so little about Zuckerberg's pre-launch vision for Facebook (which was originally called thefacebook.com) is likely because he has been a controversial target over the true origins of his business. In 2007, several of Zuckerberg's classmates came forward and claimed rights to the Facebook idea after reports surfaced that Yahoo had offered $900 million to purchase Facebook just two years after the founding of the company. Even though the suit against Zuckerberg was settled last year, given the nature of the proceedings, we'll likely never get an official answer from Zuckerberg himself about the true origins of his inspiration. But maybe we don't need one after all?
It turns out that Zuckerberg's academic history offers a great deal of insight into the inspiration for Facebook and why it was so wildly successful when it first launched. February 4th, 2004 may mark a major milestone in Facebook's history, but the story of Mark Zuckerberg's rise to fame in fact starts years before he stepped foot on the Harvard campus, and is much more complex and interesting than is usually portrayed.
Pre-Zuckerberg: Tracing the Roots of Facebook Culture
You may be surprised to hear that while Harvard was fertile ground for the launch of Facebook, the seed of the concept was likely planted in Zuckerberg in high school. You never hear about Zuckerberg's alma mater Phillips Exeter Academy in stories because Harvard was where the action really started (and the Harvard name, to some extent, validates Zuckerberg's smarts and makes for a more sensational story). But in fact, the time that Zuckerberg spent at the academy from 2000 to 2002 likely had more influence on the name and initial concept of Facebook than any of his classmates at Harvard.
Phillips Exeter Academy (or "Exeter") is a private boarding school for grades 9 to 12, located in Exeter, New Hampshire. The prestigious prep school is a member of the Ten Schools Admission Organization, which includes such famous boarding schools as Phillips Andover, Deerfield Academy, St. Paul's, and Choate Rosemary Hall. Like the other "Big Tens," Exeter has a tight-knit boarding community that lives on campus full time. Students refer to themselves as "Exonians" and have a strong group identity rooted in a rich culture of customs and tradition.
An Exonian for two years, Zuckerberg had plenty of time to observe and participate in the social culture and rhythms ingrained in Exeter's boarding lifestyle. Every year, the school says goodbye to a few hundred students and welcomes a few hundred more. Zuckerberg enrolled in the fall of his junior year and, like every new and returning student, received his own copy of Exeter's student directory, "The Photo Address Book," which students affectionately referred to as (you guessed it!) "The Facebook."
We interviewed several of Zuckerberg's peers this week, and they all confirmed what David W. Farrant (class of 2000) had to say:
"The front cover says "The Photo Address Book," but we all called it "The Facebook" all the time because "The Photo Address Book" was such a mouthful. Everybody called it that."
"Facebook" photo directories were (and still are) a huge part of the students' social experience and culture at prep schools such as Exeter. Every school in the Big Ten prints and distributes one for its students annually. When students arrive on campus each fall, the rhythm of their social lives is predominantly set by their dormitories, their class year (i.e. seniority), and their proximity to friends in other houses. Because students aren't allowed cell phones on campus and living accommodations are in such flux from year to year (they change houses and phone numbers annually), these "Facebooks" are a valuable resource for students.
Of course, not only do students need the directory to find and contact their peers, but the books become part of the culture of bonding between classmates and friends, as students use it to see where their peers live, who's hot and who's not, who lives with who, and who the new kids are. Sounds an awful lot like how people use Facebook online now, right? Of course, it also describes an early pre-Internet social culture, facilitated by photo directories, that students enjoyed long before Zuckerberg even made it to high school, a culture he happened upon and got to participate in by a stroke of pure luck and glorious opportunity.
But the story doesn't end there. In Zuckerberg's senior year, the student council, headed by student body president Kris Tillery, successfully lobbied the administration to have the school's IT department put the full contents of Exeter's Photo Address Book online. By the time Zuckerberg graduated, the website was put up at http://student.exeter.edu/facebook, with the URL directory (i.e. "facebook") named after the students' pet name for the physical book and effectively shortened to something useful. Tillery was unavailable for comment.
In our interviews, some of Zuckerberg's peers pointed us to this screenshot of the original website hosted on the school's .edu domain. The screenshot was posted in the public Facebook group "Exonians" in 2006 and is still there. Some of the comments about the screenshot (which date back to 2007) refer to it as "the original Facebook" and refer to the Photo Address Book as "the physical Facebook."
Of course, the school's student.exeter.edu/facebook website is no longer online, and none of our sources were able to confirm whether Zuckerberg himself was involved in, or responsible for, the student council initiative that got the directory online in the first place. All we know is that students were enthusiastic enough about an online version of the physical directory that the student council made an effort to lobby the administration, that the online directory was created during Zuckerberg's senior year, and that he was likely aware of its existence.
A More Complete Picture of the Facebook Success Story
Now that Facebook has graduated from its academic roots and been released to the world for free, its continued growth has many experts saying it will likely be the dominant social platform for the foreseeable future. At 200 million users (and counting), Facebook makes it hard to doubt that it will have considerable influence in the way we all connect and communicate in the future, both locally and across borders. While we may never know the true origins of Mark Zuckerberg's inspiration for Facebook, looking at the social culture of the prep school he attended and his experiences as a boarding student there offer us insight into where the explosion of global Facebook culture may have begun, why it was so successful when it launched at Harvard, and how luck and opportunity may have led one of the world's youngest visionaries to start coding in his college dorm room.
Steffan Antonas is a technology anthropologist, writer, and blogger who currently lives in San Diego, CA. He began studying human behavior in virtual communities as a graduate student in Georgetown University's Communication Culture and Technology (CCT) Program in 2003. He has worked in Southern California as an IT Professional for the past three years. You can contact Steffan at steffanantonas@gmail.com and on Twitter @steffanantonas.
Image credits: Phillips Exeter Academy by etnobofin. Book cover and Mark Zuckerberg photos by Alex Demas and Mark Flores.
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Great article
very inspiring.
Good article.
I went to a small liberal arts college around the same time that Zuckerberg was in boarding school (98-02)and we had a similar "Photo Address Book" for incoming freshman every year. It was referred to as "the facebook." I don't doubt that these are the origins of the now ubiquitous name. However, the name is successful because many colleges and prep/boarding schools have directories that students have been nicknaming, "the facebook" for years (before facebook.com).
Columbia University actually *had* a Facebook. When I started college in Fall '99, here's what they gave me during orientation: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelopera/1324506421/
@Tamar - Thanks for that picture! I went to Choate Rosemary Hall from 1994 to 1998, and we also *had* a Facebook (Called the Directory Facebook). There's a link to a picture of it up on my blog in the URL link on this comment. It seems common across many prep schools and colleges.
The interesting part of the story, I think, is that the Exeter kids put the directory online in 02 in Zuckerberg's senior year.
Great post. What I don't understand is why Zuck is so damn shady about it. Can't he just say that it was the Exeter Facebook that was the inspiration for the current Facebook? Why do the origins of the idea have to be so stealth?
It's interesting to see how the development of the idea led to the monster that lives today. As much as we'd like to think they do, great ideas don't come over night. Zuck had apparently been working on this idea for a while. The name, the features, and the final products, like Rome, weren't built in a day.
Umm, Google Alex and Tyler Winklevoss. There was a settlement that forbids them to discuss it in public, but it's a more accurate picture of where Zuckerberg got the idea.
Uhh, yeah, what the heck? This is a big discovery? I always assumed that a lot of schools had "Facebooks". Even summar camps have them.
Way back in the 70s, when I went to school the first time, we had a book too - it was called "The Mask." When I returned to school during the big buildup of the Internet, in the mid 90s, I worked in IT and people were asking us how to get the photobook online. Finally around the early 2000s, my grad school figured out how to post this stuff online.
I say, congrats to Zuckerberg for taking the initiative to make it happen. I couldn't tell you how many ideas I've had, but never took them out of my head - and now others are making millions on those same ideas.
Interesting article! Seems like the student directory book is common across schools in the US. Zuckerberg is ingenious to have used that as an inspiration.
No big whoop. Even the government has Facebooks.
I graduated from an elite government-run institution I was in for 5 years. Originally I was slated to be in for 8 but they graduated me early. You can see my picture online, and my address is always current because the gubment sees that as important somehow. Come on over any time, though I usually live in out-of-the-way places far from schools. And hey, please bring your kids over too. Plenty of space, candy, and special activities. I love children.
No big whoop. Even the government has Facebooks.
I graduated from an elite government-run institution I was in for 5 years. Originally I was slated to be in for 8 but they graduated me early. You can see my picture online, and my address is always current because the gubment sees that as important somehow. Come on over any time, though I usually live in out-of-the-way places far from schools. And hey, please bring your kids over too. Plenty of space, candy, and special activities. I love children.
The interesting part of the story, I think, is that the Exeter kids put the directory online in 02 in Zuckerberg's senior year.
You can see my picture online, and my address is always current because the gubment sees that as important somehow
Thank You..
The greatest benefit of Facebook is that it has many groups on the site that you can join. So if you are interested in Chicago Cubs you can research Chicago Cubs in the groups section and you will be able to find friends on there that like the Cubs. This is just one example, I know that you can join groups of your favorite football team, television show, or whatever you want for the most part! If you can't find a group for your interest, you can simply create one!
UQ
http://EmailCharger.com
Really, this is very nice article and very inspiring.
Thanks
This is just a bad post. Was this a paid PR piece to make Zuck look less like a thief? Inspiration from facebook was a stolen project that he was contracted to code. The guy is ripped this off.
Why doesn't he talk about facebooks roots, because he he knows he is guilty, as the settlement also shows his guilt.
The last time I saw Mark was at a CTY reunion in NYC about 8 or 9 years ago. He had already expressed some of the ideas that I see now have become Facebook.
However he got to where he is now, there was some original thought behind it. How much though, is up for debate as he never really impressed me with his programming skills.
So who owns the trademark on the name "facebook"? Is there a first use concept in trademark law? Exeter might be a really rich school if there were.
In response to Jackson - no, this was not a PR piece. Stefan came to me to see if I had picture of the actual hard copy Facebook and I told him that the more interesting part of the story was that it was actually online at the time that we were students. We at Exeter have always known that the original inspiration to put social networking online came from our school and most likely our student body president, Kris Tillery, who spearheaded the initiative.
What an amazing story Facebook is. As an online destination, its growth is unprecedented (and obviously, Facebook's growth is ongoing). But this narrative about the early beginnings of the Facebook concept is especially intriguing. Thank you for relaying it so that we can try to grasp the phenomenal force that social networking on the internet has become. Does anyone have an idea which trends will dominate in the next three years? The fact that Facebook grew as it did in its first three years leaves me speechless.
Excellent article, I've often wondered why this part of the fb story was so under-reported and unexplored. I was at Exeter at the same time as Zuckerberg and graduated just behind him.
Steffan is spot on about the ubiquity of the physical 'facebook' and its centrality to campus social life. One error of fact is that cellphones were never banned on campus, but nor were they everywhere in those years. The 'facebook' listed students' dorm room phone extensions which most people used quite a lot. Soon after the 'facebook' went online (I think that Zuckerberg did a lot of work on that project, but i'm not 100% sure) it even had customizable profiles that were very similar in concept and execution to early thefacebook.com.
Here's an interesting factoid: on PEA's facebook there was a relationship section titled "looking for." One of the choices on the dropdown menu was the now-infamous "random play."
UPDATE: A friend from the class of '04 who knew Zuckerberg better than me suspects that he wasn't involved in Exeter's online facebook.
@Ryan Graves - Dave is right. This doesn't get talked about because of past litigation forbidding it.
@ Dave - good catch.
@gwalter I agree with you. I commend Zuckerberg for taking an idea and making something of it.
I personally think ownership of the idea and the name for Facebook is a moot point for a few reasons. First and foremost, thereâs no evidence that Exeter (or any of The Big Ten prep schools) ever had any intent to start a commercial, trademarked business. Second, if they wanted to make a legal claim to the Facebook trademark or idea, they would have done it a long time ago. And besides, the Exeter administration realistically stands to benefit a lot more from standing by Mark and listing him as a famed member of their alumni (and potential donor) than under any other scenario. For these reasons, I think itâs important (if indeed events at Exeter did inspire him) to give Zuckerberg credit for recognizing a good thing and having the smarts to make something out of it. Heâs still the reason the technology was created, democratized and made available to the world. For that, we should commend him.
Kalim, I think you're right...he didn't have anything to do with it at Exeter.
@Kalim Kassam - We spoke on Twitter about this. I tried to get an interview with Kris Tillery about this. I think he'd be the best person to confirm whether Zuckerberg was involved in the initiative or not. Most of your classmates I spoke to (who all graduated in 02' with Zuckerberg) said they could neither confirm nor deny his involvement.
Special thanks to Alex Demas (Exeter '02) for helping coordinate and connect me to several interviewees, as well as pointing me to the screen shot of the online Facebook depicted in this article.
So I think we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge the fact that Exeter does not NEED to profit from Facebook as we know it. Our endowment, solid, thanks to those wonderfully successful, and otherwise, who contribute to our Annual Giving Fund yearly. Steffan expressed it the best because the continued alignment of our Academy with those of us who have gone on to attain the heights we were intended to is the best strategy to ensure its and our continued success. Yes, Kris Tillery '01 spearheaded the launch of our facebook on the school's intranet. But let's be real, business is business, and not everything is roses and kittens. He capitalized on a niche, and living in a capitalist society, how can we really find fault? And if we live out Non Sibi, then really, what's the problem?
@Hassan Adams - Agreed. Well said.
So I may have misstated the year of Kris Tillery's graduation. I'm coming up on the 10 year reunion mark, so it happens, considering at some point social circles overlap and lines can disappear completely when you have a range of years (freshmen to post-grads) in the same class (math, spanish, etc.).
@Hassan Adams - Yes, I believe Kris graduated in 2002. Thanks for the clarification.
@A CTYer
You saw him at a reunion 8 or 9 years ago? thats funny, cause he was JUST STARTING THERE 9 years ago!
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2008/06/27/facebook_connectu_settle_dispute/
Uh, MZ stole the facebook idea from those guy
Does anyone who went to Exeter remember "BuddyZoo"? It was an application deesigned for use with AIM that Zuckerberg developed with his friend at Exeter (whom I believe now also works at Facebook). I had it on my AIM profile for a while--you click on a link, and it would generate a visual "web", or "map", based on your AIM Buddy List with your screenname in the middle, and all the names on your Buddy List arranged in a circle around it, with rainbow-colored "threads" connecting everyone who was Buddies with each other, therefore giving you a holistic* (*at that time, having someone's AIM screenname was a given if you were actually friends with that person) visualization of who was friends with whom within your Buddy List, i.e the literalization of your social network.
I immediately recognized the BuddyZoo idea in the early versions of facebook.com. Within the first three years that Facebook came out, I remember there being a feature very similar to what I described above, that mapped out how your Friends were all connected with one another. That idea (of enabling the precise diagramming of social networks) had been further developed to include several degrees of separation, so that when you searched for someone's name, the search results would line up the names and profile picture thumbnails of one of your friends, and a friend of that friend, and so forth until you had a chain that connected you to whomever it was that you'd initially searched for. Sometimes multiple "chains" (i.e paths by which you were connected to that person) would be displayed.
This feature was dropped early on; I imagine it was ultimately too nerdy/indoorsy/self-contained of an idea for a social networking site purposed to be a tool to facilitate *real-life* social relationships and interactions (I mean how would you bring that up in conversation? --"Hey, I noticed you're friends with X on facebook, who at least on facebook is friends with someone named Y, although I have no idea whether you even know Y, but anyway Y is friends with me on facebook too, so we should totally hang out!"). However, it has been interesting to see how, over time, the social function of Facebook has moved towards that sort of dorky self-contained model reflected in the BuddyZoo app: Facebook has progressively moved further away from being a utilitarian resource for factual information (like an online club membership directory or Tillery's facebook), towards becoming its own alternate reality focused on self-actualization and the construction of identity, followed by the publicization of that self (like MySpace or Second Life). Because Facebook currently floats in that middle ground between the two extremes, it can function as either one, and more importantly, allows its users to control the balance between the two--which I feel is unique and integral to its popularity.
But that discussion is tangential to the topic of this article; while I can only speculate as to whether Zuckerberg had anything up his sleeve other than enthusiasm for developing the BuddyZoo idea and its incorporation into a broader online social-networking platform when he got onboard the ConnectU project at Harvard, the point is that BuddyZoo shows that there definitely were some carryovers into facebook.com from some of Zuckerberg's work/ideas in high school, besides the ubiquitous title. Moreover, this is a concrete example of some of the actual programming already being developed by Zuckerberg while we were at Exeter, (i.e before Harvard) which I observed again in facebook.com.
Does anyone who went to Exeter remember "BuddyZoo"? It was an application designed for use with AIM that Zuckerberg developed with his friend at Exeter (whom I believe now also works at Facebook, Inc.). I had it on my AIM profile for a while--you click on a link, and it would generate a visual "web", or "map", based on your AIM Buddy List with your screenname in the middle, and all the names on your Buddy List arranged in a circle around it, with rainbow-colored "threads" connecting everyone who was Buddies with each other, therefore giving you a holistic* (*at that time, having someone's AIM screenname was a given if you were actually friends with that person) visualization of who was friends with whom within your Buddy List, i.e the literalization of your social network.
I immediately recognized the BuddyZoo idea in the early versions of facebook.com. Within the first three years that Facebook came out, I remember there being a feature very similar to what I described above, that mapped out how your "Friends" were all connected with one another. That idea (of enabling the precise diagramming of social networks) had been further developed to include several degrees of separation, so that when you searched for someone's name, the search results would line up the names and profile picture thumbnails of one of your friends, and a friend of that friend, and so forth until you had a chain that connected you to whomever it was that you'd initially searched for. Sometimes multiple "chains" (i.e paths by which you were connected to that person) would be displayed.
This feature was dropped early on; I imagine it was ultimately too nerdy/indoorsy/self-contained of an idea for a social networking site purposed to be a tool to facilitate *real-life* social relationships and interactions (I mean how would you bring that up in conversation? --"Hey, I noticed you're friends with X on Facebook, who is friends with someone named Y, although I have no idea whether you even know Y, but anyway Y is friends with me on Facebook too, so we should totally hang out!"). However, it has been interesting to see how, over time, the social function of Facebook has moved towards that sort of dorky self-contained model reflected in the BuddyZoo app: Facebook has progressively moved further away from being a more-or-less utilitarian resource for factual information (like in online club membership directories or Tillery's facebook [
But that discussion is tangential to the topic of this article. While I can only speculate as to whether Zuckerberg had anything up his sleeve other than enthusiasm for developing the BuddyZoo idea and its incorporation into a broader online social-networking platform when he got onboard the ConnectU project at Harvard, the point is that BuddyZoo shows that there definitely were some carryovers into facebook.com from some of his work/ideas in high school, besides the ubiquitous title. Moreover, this is a concrete example of some of the actual programming already being developed by Zuckerberg while we were at Exeter, (i.e before Harvard) which I observed again in facebook.com.
Okay, I'm out of breath.
There was a similar book at Syracuse U in the 60s. Officially it was the Orange Pages. Unofficially, it was the pigbook. (That one is unlikely to catch on...)
Oh, shitty - tell the moderator the preview function is broken =( Sorry for multiple postings.
It's always interesting to hear the back-story of an idea or service like Facebook. One of the noble things about this story is that anyone, regardless of age, race, gender or status, can aspire to greatness. The seed of the next big product, service or idea can come from ordinary things in the minds of everyday people. Regardless of where the Facebook seed got its roots, Mark Zuckerberg studied, nurtured, cultivated and expanded it into what it is today. I think this story offers hope to all and shows that inspiration and brilliance can come from the most common of sources.
@Jeff Hurt - Very well said. I agree 100%.
Not surprising...there are and have been so many brilliant minds at Exeter.
have given very good explanation and thanks for sharing
Stanford had a book called "the facebook" by everyone as well. Every incoming freshman received one, and pretty much of all my friends in frats had a copy as well (to map out the hot incoming freshman).
I'm curious how Facebook has changed social interactions in college. When I wanted to know what a friend was up to, I called or just dropped by. Now, I'd assume a lot of students use Facebook.
As one of Facebook's very early users (it came out right as I was graduating), I always find it interesting how people are fascinated with how it started. Regardless of Mark's initial vision, or where he got the idea, the site grew rapidly because it was a popularity contest. People joked that they had more friends than others, and that was the sole purpose. No one used it to connect, no one used it to form "empathetic relationships". So while it's certainly changing social interactions today, I think the initial vision was maybe less prophetic than the media would like to believe.
We had one too. As a walk-on linebacker at the University of Phoenix I had to work hard to get to know everybody. The facebook made it possible. By my senior year, I was on full scholorship, starting as the OLB that also could play strong saftey in a cover too defence. I'm glad my facebook make me friends that made me get good grades.
@Andrew Good point. I think you're right - while it's certainly changing social interactions, I think there's a strong possibility that the initial vision was less prophetic than the media would like. It's more likely that it simply digitized and democratized the social interaction patterns that were already there, ingrained in the offline social culture. Well said.
Almost every small school or college has a face book with pictures. They even call it the "face book".
Exeter students are, and were when Mark was there, allowed to use cell phones. Just saying. Also, although rooms change every year room phone numbers remain the same. Where did this info come from?
Did Mark Zuckerberg's Inspiration for Facebook Come Before Harvard?ye,that's a good title!
I'm curious how Facebook has changed social interactions in college. When I wanted to know what a friend was up to, I called or just dropped by. Now, I'd assume a lot of students use Facebook.
I graduated from Exeter in 2007, having been on the student council and involved with the administration of the Student Server for three years. I wasn't around during the time of Zuckerberg or Tillery, but some of their close younger schoolmates imparted the history of the Student Server's evolution to me over time.
It's to my knowledge that Zuckerberg wasn't involved with the creation or administration of the Server. While Exeter might've been the first to make the student photo/address directory available online—be it via the official LionLinks site or "unofficial" student-operated Student Server, facebooks, as others have pointed out, aren't exclusive to Exeter and have been available at other institutions for years or perhaps decades.
The Student Server was popular because its copy of the student photo/address directory didn't require the user to log in each time to run a search (you had to do that with LionLinks). The tradeoff was that the Server was inaccessible outside the Exeter LAN. In addition, student council resources, club web sites, and delivery menus were hosted. The Server was also known for something admiringly called the "facebook game." You would specify on the page male or female, and your returned result was a random male or female student—a source of endless entertainment that would allow kids around a computer to gossip and reminisce. Hmm… (A later version of the Server software allowed users to log in and add personal details such as cell phone numbers or IM screen names to their profiles.)
Tillery and Zuckerberg graduated the same year, but I'm not sure whether they were friends or had collaborated to any extent on the Server. They were both proficient at programming, so it wouldn't have been terribly surprising if one had consulted the other at some point for any advice, given the strong sharing ethos of Exeter. I'd say that the relationship between Zuckerberg and his former Exeter roommate and former Facebook colleague Adam D'Angelo would be an interesting one to investigate, but that probably deserves its own article.
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