October 25, 2010 — How are social media reshaping our lives? What role does the individual have in reshaping society? Two leading authors will discuss these and other questions at the University of Virginia Oct. 29, from 10 a.m. to noon, in Old Cabell Hall.

Free and open to the public, the event, titled "The Facebook Effect and the Power of Pull: How Social Media Are Reshaping Our World," is sponsored by U.Va.'s McIntire School of Commerce and the school's Center for the Management of Information Technology.

David Kirkpatrick, author of "The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World," will be the leadoff speaker. He has researched the inner workings of Facebook from its earliest days, including conducting interviews with founder Mark Zuckerberg. His talk will explore the ways in which the social networking site went from an idea to a force that is changing the values, interests and behaviors of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

John Hagel III, co-author of "The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion," will discuss how the information economy has enabled a shift from "push" to "pull" – a "shift in market power from the makers of goods and services to the people that buy them, and to talented employees from the institutions that employ them." He will discuss the ways in which the power of pull puts each of us, individually and together, in a position to collaborate in a complete re-imagination of our biggest private- and public-sector institutions in ways that may eventually remake society as a whole.

After their talks, both speakers will participate in a panel discussion and respond to audience questions. The panel will be moderated by Dan Elron, managing partner for strategy and corporate development at Accenture.

Both books will be available for purchase at signings by the authors before and after the event.