Just back from the screening of “The Social Network”, I realize that I was quite a Zuckerberg back in 1998 or I wish I would have been one and further developed my brilliant idea of creating a WWW version of what Austrian School boys and girls call "Stammbuch".
Well, comparing myself with Zuckerberg is quite a stretch, given that I know him only from what the movie and the press reveals about him. And I am maybe only half as intelligent and that I was at the time completely lacking the entrepreneurial mindset or the ability to think big (something which I am quite strong at now).
My idea as a Business Student doing and exchange year in Valencia was to give my buddies from school to opportunity to use the WWW as a tool to share data about themselves (favorite movies, people, dishes, bands, info about location, hobbies, etc.) by creating a sort of diary (in German - Stammbuch) where my friends could upload personal data including photos and sounds they wanted to share with others.
You can't check it out anymore at http://mural.uv.es/jotin/index.htm because I deleted it in an effort to clear up my juvenile and foolish internet traces. But I realized very early the potential of the web to be used to keep in touch with your friends abroad. At the time however my idea was either too advanced, the site was too difficult to use (as I programmed it myself and people had to send me updates per e-mail) or I did not put any effort behind inducing people to register and very few of my colleagues took the opportunity to publish their profiles. But still, the website followed the central idea of face book which is valued at some 10 billion USD today.
Well, why writing all this? Others have tried to claim their IP property rights and have filed claims against facebook. Too late for that one too, I guess, but not too late for keeping my eyes open for new disruptive ideas and make sure to exploit my future big ideas…