Facebook Pulls Back The Hack-A-Thon Curtain For MTV's 'Diary'

'Diary of Facebook' premieres Wednesday at 11 p.m. ET/PT on MTV.
By Eric Ditzian

Facebook creator and CEO Mark Zuckerberg
Photo: MTV News & Docs

Every so often, Facebook shuts down — not the social-networking site itself, of course, but the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, California. And the temporary pause isn't because anything is wrong; it's because founder Mark Zuckerberg wants things to continue to go right.

Welcome to Facebook's famous "hack-a-thon," an event when business as usual ceases and techies are given carte blanche to code like crazy and create innovative additions for the site. This Wednesday, at 11 p.m. ET/PT, MTV will bring you inside it all during "Diary of Facebook."

"Hack-a-thons are this awesome part of our culture," Zuckerberg says on "Diary." "Every month or two, everyone stays up all night just experimenting with things and building things quickly. And the only rule is that you're not allowed to work on the same thing that your day job is."

That directive is how an employee named Pedram, who usually toils as a technical engineer, finds himself staying up in the wee hours to create a potentially groundbreaking application for the site. He's not the only one. And even those who can't code join in the action — cooking, juggling, drawing and more as they stay energized during the event.

All that and more will be revealed during "Diary of Facebook," which follows not only Pedram, but other employees who live and breathe social networking. Viewers will also meet Erin, a consumer-marketing employee intimately involved in Stories.Facebook.com, an effort to draw attention to users' life-changing social-networking stories. You think you know Facebook, but until you check out "Diary," you have no idea.

Tune in to "Diary of Facebook," airing Wednesday, March 30, at 11 p.m. ET/PT.

Related Videos

• Sneak A Peek At 'Diary Of Facebook'

Minerva Portillo Mickie James Ben Kingsley Anne Shirley