Thursday 3 December 2009

Facebook hits 350 million users, ho hum

In an era when some kids at school are training for jobs that don't even exist, 25-year-old Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, says he's over the moon about reaching 350 million users yesterday.

"It has been a great year for making the world more open and connected," says Zuckerberg. "Thanks to your help, more than 350 million people around the world are using Facebook to share their lives online," he wrote in an open letter on Thursday, whilst at the same time, introducing more privacy controls.
It’s a massive number, but even more amazing is the speed with which Facebook has managed to achieve this, at a rate of half a million a day at times.

Back in August 2008 – less than one and a half years ago – Facebook had just 100 million users. It took another 5 months to reach 150 million, and after that Facebook has been adding another 50 million users roughly every three months, going from 150 million to 350 million in less than one year.
Yet the nutters at NewsLtd continue to decry bloggers and anything else that doesn't fit their narrow view of sharing news and views. I wonder who the dinosaurs will be left to play with?
In Cairns, prominent folk to embrace social media and tools like Facebook, are a number in Cairns Regional Council, including Councillor's Lesina, Pyne, Forsyth, and Schier. Youth Development officer, Tanya Brooks-Cooper is a Facebook champ. Council also has it's Disaster Co-ordination Centre and Parks Recreation Plan on Facebook, as yet another way to reach out to the community.
Jim Turnour is an active Twitterer, and Jason O'Brien has just joined up, forgetting that computers are yet to make it to most Cape York communities. However besides Desley Boyle (we have 16 mutual friends!), most local MPs have kept the social media and online networking tools at arms length.
I don't know if I missed any other well-known or well-despised b-class celebrity.
I popped this video up a while ago, but think it's rather relevant to the current communication landscape.

1 comment:

Thornton On Spence said...

Check out the link on this subject to Jim Turnour's Twitter. What a total goose this guy is. Does he honestly think we need to know what hits the news ahead of his brain beginning to function. If he has to use Twitter to justify his existance please let us know what you are doing for Cairns and what hard work you have been invloved in as opposed to sleepily spending the day occupying a seat in Parliament that is under false pretences. By the way I heard from one of the attendees of the Business Forum Visitors from Cairns to Parliament that they got the strong impression from a number of front benchers involved in the meetings they treated our Member with some amusement.
You are a Goose Jim and it's time for you to earn your keep and do something useful instead of just mumbling and twittering.