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Mark Zuckerberg Named TIME’s 2010 Person of the Year
- rbanffy 16y agoProving once and for all that Huxley is better than Orwell...
- ra 16y agoyou said it.
- napierzaza 16y agoI didn't expect that comment, but it's so true. If it was a vote for the most influential person (is it?) basically people would be voting for themselves. I still don't get why people give Zuck all the credit. And I'm not talking about the creation myth about the company. I'm just saying that for a long time his company has probably not been steered by a 20 year-old. These days he's likely been coached just to not come off as a robot. But business-wise I don't get the impression it's all him either.
- vidar 16y agoThey give him all the credit because that is the story given by FB, its a large part of their marketing strategy.
- seanalltogether 16y agoYou could apply that statement to the founder of most companies but it doesn't make it true. A good founder knows how to focus their talents, not control the entire chain. However that doesn't mean they aren't one of the most important links in that chain.
- rbanffy 16y agoIndeed he is. He could have sold Facebook to Microsoft. They would, inevitably, rename it "Windows Live Facebook" before canning the whole thing.
- brown9-2 16y ago"has probably not been steered by a 20 year-old", "he's likely been coached just to not come off as a robot" How much of this is speculation and how much of this is fact? Either way, it's not like having advisors or help makes someone's accomplishments important. Presidents have armies of staff, all CEO's have advisors and aides and coaches, and Assange doesn't run wikileaks alone.
- napierzaza 16y agoDo you really believe that Facebook is driven by Zuckerberg? All things considered there are a lot of descisions an a lot of deals to be done. Couple that with a lot of investors and a lot of money, and you're not going to let the Zuck learn by making billion dollar mistakes. The comparison with Steve Jobs etc have been more marketing than fact. It's kind of unbelievable that you're believing any differently. Steve Jobs also likely had a great deal of coaching at the beginning, that's why they hired real business people and that's why Facebook has done the same. Not to mention partnering with countless tech businesses.
- brown9-2 16y agoDo you really believe that Facebook is driven by Zuckerberg? No, but I'm not quite sure why it matters. No business with 1000+ employees is driven by a single person. If Steve Jobs was "Person of the Year" for 2010 for some of Apple's accomplishments, would we be sitting around discussing how it's wrong to give him the award because he doesn't run every aspect of Apple all by himself? The CEO and founder is the face of a company, that's just the way it is. My other large nitpick here though is making criticism based on personal speculation... "probably doesn't make all decisions", "is likely getting help" etc.
- code_duck 16y agoIt's not possible for someone outside of Facebook's executive management to state any of that as fact. What do you expect?
- code_duck 16y agoMillions of dollars in Accel/In-Q-Tel money doesn't come with no strings attached, after all. A business the size of Facebook or even 2% the size can't all be the work of one person, of course. They like to make it seem that way for marketing purposes. Why they don't choose someone less creepy, I"m not sure. I guess like a lot of other douchebag founders, Zuckerberg stays in the limelight to feed his ego.
- random42 16y agoJulian Assange would disagree!?
- mikedmiked 16y agoBrilliant! I am ashamed to say that I did not understand this reference at first. To anybody else who did not understand: http://www.prosebeforehos.com/image-of-the-day/08/24/huxley-vs-orwell-infinite-distraction-or-government-oppression/ http://www.prosebeforehos.com/image-of-the-day/08/24/huxley-...
- eogas 16y agoZuckerberg was born in 1984....coincidence?
- DupDetector 16y agoRelated: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2003942 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2003942 - readwriteweb.com - no comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2001882 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2001882 - time.com - no comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1990612 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1990612 - time.com - 1 comment http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1975517 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1975517 - time.com - no comments http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1968958 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1968958 - time.com - no comments Edited to add comment count in response to replies below.
- steveklabnik 16y agoNovelty accounts? In my Hacker News? RiderOfGiraffes, is that you? If not, I suggest that you do the same as he; pointing people to the stories that have tons of comments on them. In this case, none really do yet, so maybe a note about that?
- DupDetector 16y agoIt's semi-automated scripting from RoG. I'm trying to work out the most useful method(s) of detecting duplicates and cross-referencing. In this case I didn't put the number of comments, and marked the referenced items as "related". Compare with: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2005790 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2005790 and http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2004764 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2004764 where one is marked strictly as a duplicate, the other lists related, along with a note of how many comments. I'm working on this. There's a sort-of A/B testing, since I'm able to go back and see which cross-references get up-votes, and which get down-votes. Currently I'm getting precious little of either.
- m0th87 16y agoThis is a slippery slope. It's just a matter of time before we have novelties like http://www.reddit.com/user/keanu_reeves/ http://www.reddit.com/user/keanu_reeves/ :)
- ra 16y agoI'm kinda sad Assange didn't win
- pablohoffman 16y agoFeeling sad would imply that you hold some respect to the judges that decided who won, but I think Time magazine just lost the respect of many readers. I'm kinda sad for them, not for Assange.
- mikedmiked 16y agoWhat is everyone's opinion on the Chilean Miners getting a runner up place (as opposed to none)? I was a bit surprised. It is incredible and inspiring that they survived, and the feats of engineering required to save them were remarkable (although those people aren't receiving an award), but do you think even they feel they should be runners up to this prize? It was fortunate that they survived, and they did what anybody in their position would by trying to stay calm and hold out, but their circumstances were not that unique. In West Virginia in April this year 29 miners died, but that is "old news" now to everybody except those in the immediate area. How many people are tortured, raped, wrongfully imprisoned annually? It is horrible but I'd rather suffer being in a dark, hot and humid mine for a few months and escape a hero and celebrity (with book deals) than be tortured or raped continuously, with nobody fighting to get me out of that situation. Maybe I am missing the point of the prize; which is to reward media attention. In which case why not reward X Factor, American Idol or whatever winners instead? Far more people know them.
- mseebach 16y agoI don't even know about inspiring. It's just accident-porn, inflated by a publicity-craving Chilean government and blow way out of proportions by an all too willing international press.
- setori88 16y agoTimes had better prepare for a DDOS.
- esponapule 16y agothe legion of unknown has moved on to operation paperstorm
- lwhi 16y agoFacebook isn't a 2010 phenomenon. 2010 was the year Wikileaks changed the world.
- hexis 16y agoYes, but in 2010 Facebook had a movie. No doubt Assange will be Man of the Year in 2012, when they make a movie about him.
- ugh 16y agoWikileaks is grade A movie material, by the way. Will be nice to see who picks that up.
- rmc 16y agoProbably not an American Film studio.
- jokermatt999 16y agoThey're already on it, from what I've heard. Look up information on "Wikirebels" (I can't find a good source at the moment).
- jasonlotito 16y agoWhat has changed with the Wikileaks prior to the last set? Wikileaks is also not just a 2010 phenom.
- lubos 16y agoObviously Assange should be the person of the year. Although I personally dislike him for being such a popularity whore, it's obvious Time magazine has been pressured to choose someone less controversial. But what happened to original principles of this award? Hitler was the person of the year for 1938. This award went always to the person with the highest impact on news. What the heck happened this year? Time magazine is becoming irrelevant.
- ThomPete 16y agoThis idea of him being a popularity whore, where do you have that from?
- cagenut 16y agoYou see this everywhere now. People get to act like they're being reasonable compromising middle ground moderates by opening up with a personal swipe against Assange and then following up with a vague statement of support for what wikileaks does.
- wladimir 16y agoBrilliant observation, I wish I could give you +10. People are afraid of supporting Mr. Assange or Wikileaks directly, even if they feel like they should, The scare machine is working.
- lhnz 16y agoWell, he has got loads of people to persecute him for a rape he probably didn't commit, isn't this what popularity whores do all the time for a little bit of fun. Righttttt?
- ugh 16y agoYou don’t even have to go back to Hitler and Stalin. Vladimir Putin (Person of the Year in 2007) was an at least as ambiguous Person of the Year as Assange would be. (I’m not sure about your conspiracy theory, though.)
- steveklabnik 16y agoNote that this is who was named by the editors, not who won the "Reader's Choice": http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2028734_2029036,00.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2... "though TIME's editors who choose the actual Person of the Year reserve the right to disagree"
- nightlifelover 16y agoFacebook is sooo 2009, time.com seems to just have no balls to make Assange the person of the year.
- franze 16y agospineless
- maguay 16y agoSingle-page version (best for Instapaper or just reading online period) - http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,2036683_2037183_2037185,00.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/printout/0,29239,...
- palewery 16y agoThey are trying to sell magazines. If they did Assange a "cancel your subscription to terrorist magazine" campaign would be started by Fox News.
- david927 16y agoIn other news, Time magazine announced a new version aimed at adults: http://www.theonion.com/video/time-announces-new-version-of-magazine-aimed-at-ad,17950 http://www.theonion.com/video/time-announces-new-version-of-...
- Synaesthesia 16y agoYeah. Time is an infotainment magazine.
- InclinedPlane 16y agoI saw that a while ago. This is why The Onion is so good, sometimes when they hit an issue they knock it out of the park in a way that nobody else can. Our news media, in all forms, has become increasingly infotainment for quite some time now.
- wildmXranat 16y agoMy personal stance in refusing to read that drivel stands as personal protest. What is TIME turning into anyway, Teen Idol Mania Essays? Meh.
- untamedmedley 16y agoWhile this isn't the first time wikileaks has been in the news, am I the only one that sees a problem with people's seeming interest in awarding this to whatever person is in the news closest to the time of the reveal? Wikileaks has been in the public conscious for maybe a month (combined) this entire year. Regardless of your politics, you have to admit the Tea Party has been ever-present and incredibly effective at changing the makeup of our government and getting their message out. I don't see how wikileaks has that same (perceived) effect on everyday Americans' lives.
- wakeup 16y agoObviously, Moot is the person of the year. Corrupted bitches, thats all humanity is.
- bryanwb 16y agoThe guy deserves it. He created a tool that a lot of people find very useful. I don't use it myself but I recognize how valuable it is to others. I still haven't seen any significant revelations come out of wikileaks, so I think they were right to not pick Assange
- ffffruit 16y agoHe created it in 2004. The only thing FB received during 2010 was criticism about the way they handle data.
- kenjackson 16y agoHere's a question... if there was no Facebook vs if there was no Wikileaks, which would impact the world the most now and going forward? If there's no Facebook I honestly don't think the world changes all that much. People are on MySpace, and some of the other social networks are more popular. 10 years down the line, I don't think the world looks noticeably different. Whereas I think with Wikileaks the whole dynamics of US foreign relations will change. Both are speculative, but I do think that Wikileaks is more impactful than Facebook. With that said,if they gave the award to "the social network", I'd be in more agreement.
- jamesbressi 16y agoGreat choice, forget about that Nobel Peace prize guy who is locked up for freedom of thought and speech or something about democracy... It's a hard name to remember anyway.
- code_duck 16y agoNice contrast, huh? Instead of some guy who fights for freedom and democracy and symbolizes a struggle against a tyrannical regime, let's choose some smug rich punk who is working with the government to catalog info about every citizen in the US.
- ffffruit 16y agoIronic if you think of how much Facebook has been criticised this year with regards to its privacy settings and data governance tactics.
- invisible 16y agoI am sure TIME had this picked out by October at the latest - it just had to go through editing, proof-reading, printing, etc. for a while and they kind of missed Wikileaks in the process. While I think it's not an excuse, it was probably chosen before Wikileaks released even one of the cables that are a big deal now.
- ZachPruckowski 16y agoThe problem is that they specifically made it sound like it was a late-breaking decision in their wording on the online poll and elsewhere.
- binarray2000 16y agoWhile I have hoped that Julian will win this one I'm happy that both the winner Zuckerberg and runner-up Assange are one: Hackers.
- to 16y agothats it. the time is dead to me. i can take amazon, paypal etc. because those are companies and heck they can kick whoever they want, its their business. but when a magazine ignores its readers votes... well i guess the time just adjusted to its country. democracy adieau, long live the republic.
- mfukar 16y agoI totally agree with this. Farmville is such a game-changer. Distributing whistleblower messages that expose corruption doesn't bear any significance in front of Facebook's vision of making everybody friends. <3
- moontear 16y agoWait?! Time's person of the year WAS Julian Assange as decided by the online community. TIME just chose to make Mark Zuckerberg the person of the year. In their words "though TIME's editors who choose the actual Person of the Year reserve the right to disagree". Julian Assange led the vote by ~ 150000 votes. http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2028734_2028733_2028727,00.html http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/article/0,28804,2...
- spot 16y agoJust like Time to suck up to power instead of those who challenge it. Mark totally deserves this.... but not this year. After the IPO.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- huherto 16y agoShouldn't the credit go to the soldier who leaked the documents (I am ashame don't even know his name). He is the one who is going to spend his life in prison.
- code_duck 16y agoYeah, there's a nice story out about Bradley Manning's less than hospitable confinement conditions. I'm sure they're getting the biting dogs, exotic chemicals, sexual assault team and waterboard ready for Assange. http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14/manning/index.html http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/14... Love how they're dosing him with antidepressants.
- SwaroopH 16y agoApparently, concentration camps are not evil when compared to a whistleblower website. Enough said. I feel sorry for Zuck though.
- code_duck 16y agoWhat a joke. If I had any respect left for institutions like time, I'd be shedding it. Facebook is a new, proprietary way for people to do what they were going to do on the internet already, without Facebook. I don't feel that it has been influential on society as a whole - the entire electronics revolution has. I'd rather see Steve up here with an iPad, personally. Or perhaps someone who has influenced the actual direction of history. Nice safe choice for Time, huh? Underscores their commitment to undermining the entire world of journalism by making news as bland and irrelevant as possible.
- fjania 16y agoBig deal. I was Time's person of the year back in 2006 - http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00.html http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1569514,00....