NP Rank:
8. Mob Rule: Mark Zuckerberg SXSW Interview: 2008 in Review
2008's Top 10 Moments in User-Generated News
1. Mumbai attacks
2. Natural disasters: Emergency info
3. SF Olympic torch relay protests
4. Obama and “Bittergate”
5. Protests at Republican Convention
6. Ushahidi: Crowdsourcing crisis info
7. CNN’s news wire plans
8. Mob rule: Mark Zuckerberg at SXSW
9. Twitter gets student out of Egypt jail
10. Fake report on Steve Jobs heart attack
2008 saw an explosion in the ways we gather, share and consume news. In recognition of this, NowPublic looks back at the 10 most important moments of the year in user-generated news. This is one of them.
“A disaster”, “a trainwreck” were some of the words used to describe BusinessWeek’s Sarah Lacy’s questioning of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg at the SXSW festival in Austin, Texas.
Dissatisfied with Lacy’s approach, a wave of dissent was swift to erupt - first on Twitter and then in the room itself. Lacy handed over the microphone to the audience, challenging them to come up with better questions.
Speaking after the interview, Sarah Lacy said: “A lot of people said they got a lot out of it and frankly we broke a lot of news.”
Whatever the rights and wrongs of the interview itself, this was a real demonstration of how people’s use of social media can change an event as it is still unfolding.
Crowd Power
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mtippett
Vancouver, Canada -
armiller
Austin, Texas, United States -
andrewfeinberg
Rockville, Maryland, United States







Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (1)
at 23:08 on December 15th, 2008
Incredibly powerful is the Public if it only knew, how powerful it really could be.