Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a surprisingly interesting keynote interview today at SXSW 2008. (Photo by skidder.)
Not only because interviewer Sarah Lacy drew Zuckerberg out from his
normally quiet shell, but also because it caused the SXSW crowd to turn on Lacy
for too much pedantry.
A quick tangent on the hubbub: The audience grew frustrated with Lacy's decision to storytell rather than to interview. The audience members that I spoke to also wanted her to dig
into new, interesting topics that hadn't already been beaten to death
in the mainstream and tech press. e.g., tell us more about how Facebook is supporting the
guerrilla government revolt in Columbia? The best snippet may be that Lacy told Zuckerberg that if he wanted
to know the real story behind his company, he needed to read her
upcoming book of Silicon Valley startup lore. No doubt, the strange interactions will be called out in depth on
the gossip sites, and there's a good deal of commentary on twitter.
This being said, let's get back to the details of the Zuckerberg interview. Lacy's drawing-out of
Zuckerberg is what made the SXSW crowd warm up to him. Here's the gist
of the discussion:
