The Harvard University dormitory where Facebook was born is a red brick and ivy-draped campus castle that, beyond just being a place to sleep and study, has long prided itself as a community of the best and the brightest.
But Kirkland House, where a curly haired 19-year-old prodigy named Mark Zuckerberg hid out in his room for a week writing the computer code that would eventually redefine the way people interact on the Internet, is wary of threats to its sanctuary. “Do not copy or lend your key to anyone,” it instructs residents. “Do not allow anyone access to the House unless you know him/her.”
Ever since Zuckerberg dropped out at the end of his sophomore year, he has worked to create an online world where such rules no longer apply.
Facebook, the world’s largest social networking site with 500 million users, began as a tool for communication between people who knew each other and were bound by shared and exclusive interests. Zuckerberg required those signing up to have a Harvard e-mail address, months after the university nearly expelled him for hacking its computers and jolting the campus with a site that encouraged students to rank their classmates’ looks.
