The (Apparently) Two Sides of Mark Zuckerberg

To-date, I’ve watched Facebook CEO live four times: Michael Arrington’s interview at TC40 (which was half-interview, half-infomercial for fbFund), 60 Minutes, this week with Sarah Lacy at SXSW and yesterday at the Facebook developer garage.

Everyone has called him awkward, reserved, difficult to interview, etc. What I can assure you is that in a 24-hour period I witnessed two different sides of Mark Zuckerberg. We all know how the interview with Lacy went, so I won’t rehash it as most of us have moved on.

At the Facebook developer garage yesterday, it was like night-and-day. Mark was open, conversational, and even a bit funny (ok, just a bit). He did the professional thing by not mentioning the interview the day prior except to say that many people asked for more time for q&a and he wanted to offer more time.

There was a warmth in the room that wasn’t there the day before. Mark answered every question that was asked of him without stock answers as he did the day before. The "we are focused on communication between people" didn’t come out of his mouth once and when one person asked him about his personal life, he answered.

I now get why so many app developers are building on the Facebook platform. It’s not only about the Facebook name or Zuckerberg, it’s not just about the potential money (if there is any), it’s about the tight developer community that’s been created, a community that MySpace doesn’t have.