5/25/2015

ThisisthelittlebookFacebookgivestoitsnewemployees

Heres our rst peek inside the little red book

Facebook gives to employees
by OWEN WILLIAMS Tweet 4d ago in FACEBOOK

Ben Barry, a former designer at Facebook, has published a series of scans from the
companys little red book, which he created during his time at the company.
The images give our rst peek inside an interesting book which hasnt been available
on the internet before today.
The book is full of tiny propaganda quotes about Facebooks history and culture. It only
began being placed on each new employees desk after the company hit 1 billion users
in late 2012.

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ThisisthelittlebookFacebookgivestoitsnewemployees

Barry and Everett Katigbak co-founded Facebooks Analog Research Lab , a print
studio that is near Facebooks original Menlo Park building. In his time at Facebook,
Barry was famous for his focus on the companys brand, even to the point that he was
dubbed the companys propaganda minister internally.
According to Fast Company, anyone could use the print labs equipment if they wished
to create something of their own and the lab was often used to teach other employees
about physical print.

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In a post on his site, Ben Barrys oice, the designer explains that the book came about
because Facebook experienced challenges explaining [the] companys mission,
history, and culture to new employees and that a lot of formative company
discussions and debates had happened in Facebook Groups, over email, or in person.
Those who had been present at the time had context, but for new employees that
information was diicult to nd, even if you knew what you were looking for.

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The original little red book was by Mao Zedong, the founder of Chinese Communist
Party, and contained speeches, quotes and writings by him.
While its unlikely that Facebook was attempting to invoke Chairman Mao with its
version, the text is lled with similarly selective quotations.

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Facebooks version is an interesting read that provides a look into its internal culture,
even if we can only see small snippets of it.
Barry has only uploaded a few pages. He says the only way to see the entire text is to
get a job at Facebook.
Facebooks Little Red Book [Oice of Ben Barry]
Read Next: Facebook launches Instant Articles for iPhone
Image credits: Oice of Ben Barry

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Owen Williams

a.k.a ow

Owen is a reporter for The Next Web based in Amsterdam. Owen's specialties are gadgets,
developer trends, security and privacy. You can nd him on Twitter at @ow, G+ here and
get in touch here. He also runs a weekly tech newsletter you'll love.
Say thanks or boo to Owen

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ThisisthelittlebookFacebookgivestoitsnewemployees

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PindileMhandu 4daysago

linknotworkingtobarry'soffice
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BenBarry>PindileMhandu 4daysago

Ihadtomovetoanewserverlastnight.Everythingisworkingfineforme,soI
assumethisisjustaDNSpropagationissue.Hopefullyitwillberesolvedsoon.Sorry.
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EricWizKidOdom 5daysago

ThepiecesthatBenBarryhassharedrecentlyhavebeenincrediblyinteresting.It'sgreat
seeingsuchinsightintosomanydifferentaspectsofFacebook'sbrand.
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Trolololo 4daysago

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FuckHR 4daysago

Laborlawyersmustbedrooling...

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ValerioPierbattista 5daysago

greatpost!

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