MOW: The Social Network

You don't get to 500 million friends without making a few enemies.

These days, even my mom is on Facebook. My MOM. I wonder if Mark Zuckerberg ever planned on his mother "friending" him when he invented the popular social networking site in his college dorm room at Harvard University.

It seems like Mark didn't have much time to plan when he designed and launched The Facebook in 2004. According to The Social Network, Zuckerberg, (played by Jesse Eisenberg) along with his best friend (and later CEO) Eduardo Saverin (played by Andrew Garfield), put the site together within a few month's of Mark's meeting with the Winklevoss twins about their idea "The Harvard Connection", a social networking site designed exclusively for Harvard, and the actual launch of the site.

The plot of the movie follows Mark, Eduardo and the "Winklevi" twins through the time line between the launch and extreme success of the site, to the legal action that ultimately took place between the four Harvard undergrads. The twins sued Zuckerberg for theft of intellectual property, and Saverin sued his best friend and former partner for cutting him out of most of his share of the company.

An interesting twist to the story is the role of Sean Parker (played by Justin Timberlake), founder of the downloading music site, Napster.

According to the movie, Parker met with Zuckerberg, convinced him to drop the "the" in front of Facebook and take the company and idea to California, specifically Stanford University.

Parker eventually sets up meetings with half of the investors in Silicon Valley to get Facebook off the ground financially, and drives Mark and Eduardo further and further apart emotionally. Eduardo is no longer involved in most of the business deals, and Parker worms his way in, both as Zuckerberg's friend, and as a shareholder in the company.

The entire movie is a flashback during the two trials the four men are facing. As the lawyers are conducting the depositions with Mark, Eduardo and the twins, the events take place in everyone's memories.

Zuckerberg is portrayed as an amazingly intelligent, slight social outcast with a popular friend and a great idea. His character gives hope to all men who didn't get the letter slipped under their door from the exclusive collegiate club, and who aren't on the university rowing team.

Here's to you Mark.