How Collaborative is Social?

The film The Social Network is a Hollywood production that dramatizes the story of the founding of Facebook by Mark Zuckerberg and the subsequent arguments over the legal rights to it. It has a very strong focus on the creative process and also highlights how, unlike in other mediums, the internet is constantly evolving. Once a book is published, there is a finite end to the creative process for that particular work. However, with an endeavor like Facebook, it becomes clear that there is no such ending or “final result.”

This can be seen clearly in the portrayal of the original purpose of Facebook. Before it was even started, the main idea of it was comparing girls to farm animals. When it first went online, it became a ranking system of which girls were more attractive. For those familiar with what Facebook is today, it may be hard to imagine this leap from a ranking system to a major social network. As the movie shows, however, these major changes are often influenced by sources outside of the original creator, in this case the Winklevoss twins. This leads to an examination of the concept of intellectual property, formerly an issue that was more simple to define and identify. Again, using the book example, if someone copied your words and cited the work as their own, the evidence was in hard print. Within the realm of the cyber, it is more difficult because one personally originally publishes the content, but then updates and changes it constantly. In a way, the last step in the print industry is the first step in the cyber realm.

Because many changes occur in public view over a long period of time, there is inevitably outside contribution, especially when it is a collaborative effort. The question then becomes, Who is the creator? Who is the true owner of the intellectual property? Can only one person claim responsibility for the whole work? What degree of contribution is required for recognition? The Social Network raises these questions in detail, but clearly shows that they have yet to be answered fully as the complexity of the cyber creative process continues to refuse simple explanation.