We recently announced a new way to develop Facebook's governing structure. Since then, we've heard from many of you as we work to further develop the documents that will explain the relationship between Facebook and our users. We're now more than halfway through the comment period—the time when you can submit feedback on two proposed documents. The first is the Facebook Principles, which reflect the philosophy and values we aspire to, and the second is the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, which will govern Facebook's relationships with users and others who interact with us and replace the existing Terms of Use.

If you haven't had a chance to read the documents and comment yourself, we encourage you to do so now. The comment period will close at 12:01 a.m. PST on March 29. We want to govern our system in an open and transparent way, and your involvement in this process is crucial. You can find the Facebook Principles here and the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities here in English and a number of other languages.

To date, each of the Town Hall groups has over 10,000 members, and we've received nearly 3,000 comments. The Facebook Legal team is busy reading through your feedback to identify common threads that we hope to address with a revised version of the documents that will then be put up for a vote.

We're excited about this new process and encouraged to see a participatory model of governance in other contexts. Just this week, New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine opened up his state budget proposal for comment by supporters of his Facebook Page, saying he's "interested in what people have to say and taking some time to answer their questions."

We look forward to seeing what you have to say and answering your questions and concerns in the next version of our documents, as well. Thanks for your constructive participation so far, and keep checking back for more updates on this process. We'll be sharing information about how voting will work in the coming weeks.


Simon Axten, an associate on the Public Policy team, is looking forward to your comments.