90 Technology
The Friendly
Network
While interactive social
networking is a fairly new
phenomenon for most
Internet users, in an ex-
clusive interview, Jordan
Business talks to one of
the field’s brightest inno-
vators. Sami Shalabi, a
Jordanian graduate of the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (MIT) and
co-founder of Google Friends Connect, sheds light on the recent popularity of
interactive social applications and their benefits for Internet consumers. Also,
with 10 registered patents to his name, Shalabi explains what he believes are the
determinants of his success in a fiercely competitive world market.
Mr. Shalabi, your career path
to date, and the accomplish-
ments achieved throughout,
highlighted by the 10 registered
patents to your name and a fur-
ther 22 in the pipeline, speak vol-
umes about your successes thus
far. What would you say were
the definitive building blocks of
your success up until now?
The first and foremost building
block is having insatiable passion for
what I do. Without passion, it is very
hard to keep pushing the envelope of
what is possible and what isn’t. When
you are passionate, your heart and
soul keep you eager to learn and grow
as a business leader and innovative
thinker, forcing you to never be satis-
fied with the status quo.
When searching for new problems
to solve, it is critical to view innova-
tion as a process and not as an event.
Every invention I have been involved
with so far has been a result of an it-
erative approach to problem solving.
Every attempt at a solution gives me
more insight into the problem as well
as an additional opportunity to ques-
tion basic assumptions.
New ideas for me have always come
from outside my immediate problem
domain. I always like to expose myself
to many different domains because this
is where I get my inspiration. Whenever
Issue #35
I look at a problem, I start with the as-
sumption that most problems have been
solved elsewhere. This helps me focus
on the ‘right’ new problems. Next, I
look for the simplest possible solution.
After all, the best and most powerful
ideas are usually the simplest.
Finally, I came to realize that in order
to be successful I had to constantly
seek out mentors. It really increases
your odds for success if you have oth-
ers helping you. Successful people un-
derstand this and know they need to
give back in order to move forward.
In the same way I seek mentors, I now
look to help others.
Your most recent accomplish-
ment has been the co-founding of
Google Friends Connect, which
allows users to add interactive
social applications to their own
Web sites. With the Internet now
heading towards an upward spi-
ral of social-networking sites, ap-
plications and technologies, what
is the main benefit of your latest
innovation to the consumer?
Google’s mission is to organize the
world’s information and make it uni-
versally accessible and useful. Making
the Web more socially friendly helps
us drive towards this mission mainly
because a large part of the world’s
information is still in people’s heads.
Social interactions help capture this
JORDAN BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2009
tacit knowledge in a way that benefits
all those involved.
Google Friend Connect is an online
service that lets Web masters add so-
cial features to their sites by simply
copying and pasting a few snippets
of code, with no advanced coding or
technical background needed. Once
a Web site is enabled, Google Friend
Connect makes it easy for anyone to
sign into a Web site, share a little bit
about themselves through a personal
profile, discover other people with
similar interests, invite their contacts,
discuss the site’s content, and interact
with friends. Even better, users don’t
have to deal with the hassle of creating
yet another username and password;
Google Friend Connect lets users log in
using an existing account from Google,
Yahoo, AOL, or OpenID. Similarly,
users can choose to either establish a
new profile or use profiles and friend
sources from other social networks that
have opened up their services such as
Twitter, Plaxo and orkut.
To help facilitate an open social Web,
Google Friend Connect uses open
standards like OpenID and OAuth, to
makes it simple for people to instantly
interact with one another on the sites
that they already love to visit. Ad-
ditionally, Web sites that use Google
Friend Connect become OpenSocial
containers, capable of running appli-
 Technology JORDAN BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2009 91

cations created by the OpenSocial de- Apart from being able to “so- co-founded Zingku, a company
veloper community, allowing the com- cialize on the net,” what are the that was successfully acquired
munity to participate in building new main benefits, in your estima- by Google after receiving major
and innovative social applications. tion, of having social applica- funding for the innovative tech-
tions attached to Web sites? How nologies you had a first hand in
With fierce competition from do you think, if at all, they can architecting. Assuming that you
other heavyweight social-net- be applied to Jordanian and re- would consider this a significant
working sites such as Facebook gional Web sites and what are personal success, what, in your
and MySpace, what factors did the benefits to be derived from belief, are the pre-requisites to
you consider in your endeavor to their incorporation? successfully transitioning an in-
ensure that your latest innova- Socializing Web sites has tremen- novative theory into an applied
tion was innovative, distinct and dous benefits because it allows for the reality in such a competitive
competitive? creation of an unrealized community commercial world?
If you look at the way social activ- and the authoring of new content Early on in my career I learned that
ity takes place today, you would notice around a context. For example, I read when you do anything it is important
it is concentrated in social networks. ArabCrunch.com, a blog about tech- to be able to measure and report suc-
You have to go to a spe- cess. Therefore, everything
cific site such as Facebook “When searching for new prob- I have done must have a
or MySpace to be social. lems to solve, it is critical to view success metric tied to it.
From a broader perspec- This allows me to ensure
tive, going to a particular innovation as a process and not that I can identify successes
destination to be social as an event.” when they do occur. When
seems broken. In the real we started Zingku, we
world, you do not go to nology in the region. Adding social built a service that allowed
one place to be social, but you are so- features to ArabCrunch allows readers for the multi-channel (mobile, IM,
cial everywhere you go: at home, at like me to join the ArabCrunch com- email, Web) exchange of data (mes-
work, at school, at a party, etc. munity and interact with other read- sage, photos, etc). We had a collection
ers. Without social features, I would of services to offer (sharing media,
Having a few destinations to be so- have never been able to discover who mobile flyers, polls, invites, etc). We
cial reminds me of user-generated else is interested in ArabCrunch, let did not know which were going to be
content (UGC) several years ago. In alone interact with them. the popular services and were con-
the early days of UGC, you went to stantly dreaming up new services to
Wikipedia to do UGC. Now UGC is The beauty of an open platform is build. However, as time progressed,
not a destination, but a concept that that anyone can build social applica- we found that our service was really
exists everywhere on the Web. Now it tions and use them to socialize online, popular among musicians, causing us
is commonplace to leave a comment therefore allowing an eco-system to to focus more on that niche. We would
on eBay, Amazon, Maktoob, etc, get created in all regions of the world have not been able to figure this out
and users can and do contribute to and across a variety of niches. Local unless we kept iterating and tracking
most conversations that occur on the Web sites and local application devel- success metrics.
Web. In the same way UGC changed opers understand their markets better
from a destination to Second, it does not matter
a ubiquitous concept, “Socializing Web sites has tre- how innovative your work
we believe social net- is if your clients are not us-
working is on a similar
mendous benefits because it al- ing it. It was critical for us
transformation. Social is lows for the creation of an un- to listen to our users and
a concept that should be realized community and the understand the problems
everywhere. For example, they wanted solved. In the
when you read a mer- authoring of new content around consumer space, you al-
chant’s review on eBay it a context.” ways start the day with zero
would be great to see what users. Every day your users
your friends said about the same mer- than anyone. They can use this unique can move to use another competing
chant. I also read a lot of specialty knowledge to create more compelling service. To keep your users, you need
sites, such as ArabCrunch and Mash- social experiences that benefit their to identify their needs and keep solv-
able. It would be nice if I could actu- local markets, while openness allows ing their problems; otherwise they will
ally have social interactions with peo- innovation to occur everywhere and not come back. A rapid iterative ap-
ple on those sites without those sites by everyone. proach to development was, therefore,
having to become a social network. one of the most important principles
Google Friend Connect is about en- Prior to joining the technical we had at Zingku and now at Google
abling this transformation. team in Google Inc in 2007, you Friend Connect. It is only through
Issue #36
92 Technology
rapid iterative development that you
can learn and adapt.
Third, the success of any business is
directly tied to the quality of the peo-
ple working on it. It is always a team
that is executing an idea, not an indi-
vidual. A team that complements and
works well with each other is critical.
When we were hiring at Zingku, we
had a principle to only hire and keep
A-plus players, both in skill and atti-
tude, for A-plus players feed off each
others’ creativity, drive and passion.
As a scientist of Jordanian
origin, you are what many, in-
cluding the Queen Rania Cen-
ter for Entrepreneurship, would
consider an “exodus Arab scien-
tist.” Regional statistics suggest
that over 33% of the total brain
drain heading westwards origi-
nates from the Arab world and
that approximately 45% of Ar-
abs who complete their higher
education abroad do not return
to their country of origin. As
an MIT graduate, you seem to
fit the category. What, in your
perspective, are the main rea-
sons behind this phenomenon?
Which of the factors you out-
lined played into your decision
to remain in the US?
I believe the exodus
now is driven by the lack “…it does not matter how in-
of awareness of opportuni-
ties in the region. Western novative your work is if your
institutions spend a huge clients are not using it.”
amount of time, energy, and
money recruiting the best
and brightest. When I graduated from
MIT, the presence of Arab institutions
was non-existent, in contrast to the
numerous attractive offers I received
in the US from organizations based
there. Now things are a little better
in some fields, such as management
consulting, but are still far from ideal.
Once you join a Western institution,
there are well-established retention
and growth programs that make it un-
attractive to move within the country,
let alone to another country. Finally,
it is a strategy for some developed
countries to put the best and brightest
on a path to citizenship, helping them
plant deeper roots in their new home.
Issue #37
JORDAN BUSINESS FEBRUARY 2009
“I am so excited about how multi-nation-
als are looking at the need for establishing
themselves in the region, validating it as
an important market.”
All these played a role in my decision position as a host country?
to stay in the US. I am so excited about how multi-
nationals are looking at the need for
Recruiting top talent requires more ac- establishing themselves in the region,
tive engagement from the region. If we validating it as an important market. I
are going to retain our best and bright- can only see good coming out of this.
est, the region needs to go after them, It is not only good for the local econo-
otherwise others will. This involves a my, in so far as attracting more foreign
strategy that not only includes recruit- investment, but in helping transfer
institutional knowledge and
best practices. The osmosis
effect that comes from these
entrants will be far reaching.
They will improve the over-
all business climate, provide
ment, but requires offering more in the better opportunities for educational
areas of recognition, rewards, incen- institutions to engage with industry,
tives and societal integration. help other multinationals make simi-
lar entries, get talent coming back,
Moves to attract large infor- and change business and intellectual-
mation-technology and com- property laws to be more business-
munication giants to Jordan, and entrepreneurial-friendly.
through initiatives such as the El
Hassan Science City and others, Jordan is at a key advantage point be-
have gained momentum within cause of its central location, outstand-
the country recently, with re- ing and cost effective high-end talent
ports that Microsoft, Cisco and pool, and stable political climate.
Google have all signed on. What What is exciting about the El Hassan
benefits do you think the entry Science City, in particular, is that it de-
of these multinationals will have clares Jordan’s commitment to science
on the overall Jordanian econo- and technology, making the Kingdom
my? What comparative advan- an obvious home in the Arab world
tage does Jordan have to sell its for science and technology.