March 9, 2008: The Zuckerberg, Lacy Incident

Play
Lacy and Zuckerberg at SXSW - via BrianSolis.com
Lacy and Zuckerberg at SXSW – via BrianSolis.com

2008 – SXSW Interactive keynote, Mark Zuckerberg was being interviewed by journalist Sarah Lacy. There was a lot of anticipation for the event, but things went south quickly (no pun intended). During the interview, Lacy starts talking about these books Zuckerberg writes into but never formally asked him about it. She gets a little befuddled because Mark was not picking up the ball.

She verbally notes the stall, which Zuckerberg replies “You have to ask a question.”  That brought the audience into the conversation with a standing ovation. Trying to continue, Lacy finally made a question out of this story with Mark giving a 2 minute answer and not divulging that he “burned those books”.

Lacy then went to the audience for affirmation of the book burning. However, she instead got the comment “Talk about something interesting!”

Sarah responded with “Try to do what I do for a living. It’s not as easy as it looks…” That brought the audience into the conversation.

After that, people took to Twitter, wondering why Lacy wasn’t asking questions.

Finally, they ended the keynote with Lacy saying “I’m sorry to torture you for an hour.” The comment was not well-received.

Subscribe to Day In Tech History:

RSS Feed - iTunes - Google Play - Spotify
Twitter - Facebook

RSS Bandwidth by Cachefly Get a 14 Day Trial

Be a Part of the Sconnie Geek Nation!

In Wisconsin, friends are called "Sconnies". Even if you're not from Wisconsin, you can be part of the Sconnie Geek Nation through my coverage! By pledging, you join the Geek Sconnie Nation! Plus, you help me cover costs so I can continue the coverage of Gadget tech, music tech, and geek culture through the shows.

  • IBM 2260
  • Four-millionth domain name
  • Newscorp says no to counter offer on Yahoo
  • PowerOpen Association