Mark Zuckerberg, who’s been portrayed in a Hollywood movie this year and has seen his social media empire grow ever larger, has been named Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2010. Zuckerberg launched Facebook in 2004.    

    FACEBOOK founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2010, joining the ranks of winners that include heads of state and rock stars as the person the magazine believes most influenced events of the past year.

    At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest “Person of the Year” since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh; he was 25 when he was named in 1927, Time said Wednesday. Zuckerberg beat out Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks: She was 26 when she was named in 1952.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke received the honor last year. The 2008 winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama.

    In naming Zuckerberg, Time cited him “for changing how we all live our lives.”

    In a posting on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said that being named Time’s “Person of the Year” was “a real honor and recognition of how our little team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected. I’m happy to be a part of that.”

    Zuckerberg has put himself on the map not only as one of the world’s youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy.

    Earlier this year, he pledged US$100 million over five years to the Newark, N.J. school system. Now, he’s in the company of media titans Carl Icahn, Barry Diller and others who have joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to commit the country’s wealthiest people to step up their charitable donations.

    Zuckerberg owns about a quarter of Facebook’s shares. The site has in six years grown to more than 500 million users worldwide and a dollar worth in the billions.

    Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York to Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward, a dentist.

    On Zuckerberg’s Facebook page, he listed his personal interests as “openness, making things that help people connect and share what’s important to them, revolutions, information flow, minimalism.”

    Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software as a child in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately. Newman calls him a “prodigy,” adding that it was “tough to stay ahead of him.”

    Zuckerberg also took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while he was still in high school. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games.

    In one such program, since his father’s dental practice was operated from their home, he built a software program he called “ZuckNet,” which allowed all the computers between the house and dental office to communicate by pinging each other. It is considered a “primitive” version of AOL’s Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.

    According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, “some kids played computer games. Mark created them.”

    However, notes Vargas, Zuckerberg was not a typical “geek-klutz,” as he later became captain of his high school fencing team and earned his diploma in classical literature.

    By the time he began classes at Harvard, he had already achieved a “reputation as a programming prodigy,” notes Vargas. He majored in computer science and psychology, and belonged to Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity.

    In his sophomore year, from his dorm room, he built a program he called “CourseMatch,” which allowed users to make class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and also to help them form study groups. A short time later, he created a different program he initially called “Facemash,” that let users at the college select the best-looking person from a choice of photos.

    The site went up during the weekend, but by Monday morning Zuckerberg’s site was shut down by the college. It had become so popular during the short time it was up that it eventually overwhelmed Harvard’s Web server. In addition, many students complained that their photos were being used without permission. He apologized publicly.

    At the time of Zuckerberg’s “fun” site, however, students had already been requesting the university to develop a Web site that would include similar photos and contact details to be part of the college’s server network. According to Zuckerberg’s roommate at the time, Arie Hasit, “Mark heard these pleas and decided that if the university won’t do something about it, he will, and he would build a site that would be even better than what the university had planned.”

    Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room Feb. 4, 2004. Zuckerberg’s Facebook started off as just a “Harvard thing” until Zuckerberg decided to spread it to other schools, enlisting the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz.

    They first started it at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Brown, and Yale, and then at other schools that had social contacts with Harvard.

    Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. They leased a small house that served as an office.

    On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that the company reached the 500 million-user mark. (SD-Agencies)

    FACEBOOK founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been named Time’s “Person of the Year” for 2010, joining the ranks of winners that include heads of state and rock stars as the person the magazine believes most influenced events of the past year.

    At 26, Zuckerberg is the youngest “Person of the Year” since the first one chosen, Charles Lindbergh; he was 25 when he was named in 1927, Time said Wednesday. Zuckerberg beat out Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II by just two weeks: She was 26 when she was named in 1952.

    Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke received the honor last year. The 2008 winner was then-President-elect Barack Obama.

    In naming Zuckerberg, Time cited him “for changing how we all live our lives.”

    In a posting on his Facebook page, Zuckerberg said that being named Time’s “Person of the Year” was “a real honor and recognition of how our little team is building something that hundreds of millions of people want to use to make the world more open and connected. I’m happy to be a part of that.”

    Zuckerberg has put himself on the map not only as one of the world’s youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy.

    Earlier this year, he pledged US$100 million over five years to the Newark, N.J. school system. Now, he’s in the company of media titans Carl Icahn, Barry Diller and others who have joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to commit the country’s wealthiest people to step up their charitable donations.

    Zuckerberg owns about a quarter of Facebook’s shares. The site has in six years grown to more than 500 million users worldwide and a dollar worth in the billions.

    Zuckerberg was born in White Plains, New York to Karen, a psychiatrist, and Edward, a dentist.

    On Zuckerberg’s Facebook page, he listed his personal interests as “openness, making things that help people connect and share what’s important to them, revolutions, information flow, minimalism.”

    Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software as a child in middle school. His father taught him Atari BASIC Programming in the 1990s, and later hired software developer David Newman to tutor him privately. Newman calls him a “prodigy,” adding that it was “tough to stay ahead of him.”

    Zuckerberg also took a graduate course in the subject at Mercy College near his home while he was still in high school. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games.

    In one such program, since his father’s dental practice was operated from their home, he built a software program he called “ZuckNet,” which allowed all the computers between the house and dental office to communicate by pinging each other. It is considered a “primitive” version of AOL’s Instant Messenger, which came out the following year.

    According to writer Jose Antonio Vargas, “some kids played computer games. Mark created them.”

    However, notes Vargas, Zuckerberg was not a typical “geek-klutz,” as he later became captain of his high school fencing team and earned his diploma in classical literature.

    By the time he began classes at Harvard, he had already achieved a “reputation as a programming prodigy,” notes Vargas. He majored in computer science and psychology, and belonged to Alpha Epsilon Pi, a Jewish fraternity.

    In his sophomore year, from his dorm room, he built a program he called “CourseMatch,” which allowed users to make class selection decisions based on the choices of other students and also to help them form study groups. A short time later, he created a different program he initially called “Facemash,” that let users at the college select the best-looking person from a choice of photos.

    The site went up during the weekend, but by Monday morning Zuckerberg’s site was shut down by the college. It had become so popular during the short time it was up that it eventually overwhelmed Harvard’s Web server. In addition, many students complained that their photos were being used without permission. He apologized publicly.

    At the time of Zuckerberg’s “fun” site, however, students had already been requesting the university to develop a Web site that would include similar photos and contact details to be part of the college’s server network. According to Zuckerberg’s roommate at the time, Arie Hasit, “Mark heard these pleas and decided that if the university won’t do something about it, he will, and he would build a site that would be even better than what the university had planned.”

    Zuckerberg launched Facebook from his Harvard dormitory room Feb. 4, 2004. Zuckerberg’s Facebook started off as just a “Harvard thing” until Zuckerberg decided to spread it to other schools, enlisting the help of roommate Dustin Moskovitz.

    They first started it at Stanford, Dartmouth, Columbia, New York University, Cornell, Brown, and Yale, and then at other schools that had social contacts with Harvard.

    Zuckerberg moved to Palo Alto, California, with Moskovitz and some friends. They leased a small house that served as an office.

    On July 21, 2010, Zuckerberg reported that the company reached the 500 million-user mark. (SD-Agencies)