Facebook needs more storage space for its millions of users. With so many users, there are over 55 million status updates per day, and every single one needs a place to stay, and this new facility will be one place where they are stored.
The facility will basically be a warehouse of servers with 35 full time employees which helps the struggling Prineville economy that has an unemployment rate of over 17% according tot he article.
The reason the company chose this location was because of the climate and tax breaks they can receive. Also Prineville had a steady and reliable power supply which is very important for running a warehouse of servers.
This will bring a lot of money into the town that really needs help. The project is estimated to be completed by next year, and construction has already begun.
If this project is really implemented, this is great news for a small city like Prineville. The city budget will benefit from more tax income which will be reallocated in investments to improve the community welfare. But I am a bit concern about the long term viability of this project. I just feel like Facebook is a just a trendy thing that might not last until the end of the decade. People will realize how time wasting it is and might turn away to the next big thing (Twitter ? ..). Just like msn messenger quickly became has-been when Facebook showed up, the same thing might happen with social networking websites. This 2.0 internet is going to bring tens of fashionable applications and will soon push Facebook to the obsolete level. But what will happen then to these 35 employees ?
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