Original Facebook Timelines App To Be Released Into Public Domain

May 16, 2012 - PRLog -- Today, May 6, 2012, Mark Brabson announced that he would relinquish all copyrights to his original Facebook Timelines application. As of July 4, 2012, the code and the original concept will be released into the public domain where it can be copied and used by anyone and for any purpose they choose.

Laid off in January 2009, Mark set about creating a minor timesaver tool for himself and his friends on Facebook. He built Timelines on the Facebook platform during the summer of 2009 as a means of re-connecting with old friends. In his product description, he wrote "Timelines is (and will be) many things to many people, but first and foremost, Timelines lets you tell the story of your life, especially useful when re-connecting to old friends. Publish/hide as much as you want to/from as many as you want."

https://developers.facebook.com/apps/88745076063

"I tried to make it totally interactive,” he reports, “so that my friends and I can help each of us tell the story of each other’s lives by contributing any multimedia content and/or comments we may have to share, but at that time Facebook's API could not accommodate the complex security issues involved. Stymied by those limitations, he ceased all development on Timelines in 2010.

Facebook announced its launch of the rebranded application late last year describing it as the latest iteration of the ubiquitous User Profile. Earlier this year, Brabson stumbled upon an article reporting the new Facebook application, but showing his own application description, almost word for word, mistakenly attributed to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook's CEO. As it turns out, this was not an error but an accurate quote reported by several other online media outlets.

Brabson's several inquiries to Facebook and to Zuckerberg have gone, so far, unanswered. "I can hang onto my pride and be bitter about others profiting from my brainchild or I can let it go and enjoy the rest of my life." On July 4 of this year, Brabson says he will sever all ties and rights to his former creation.

"The truth is that God dropped the idea into my head fully-formed to begin with, so it was never really 'mine' anyway. I pray this will be sufficient penance for my sin (of pride) in all this."


Mark Wesley Brabson is an IT Services Contractor, doing business as IT Solutions Design, serving the IT needs of small businesses in the Greater Cleveland and Greater Akron areas of Ohio. Mark can be reached by phone at 440.479.1715 and by email at support@markbrabson.com.