After being in a room full of excited facebook application developers, marketers and other interested parties, I got a clear sense of not only the potential of the facebook platform, but also of how many people willing to go to great lengths to exceed its potential. facebookcamptoronto2 really opened my eyes to the possibilities of facebook applications, and to how adaptable the platform was to the needs of many types of interested parties.

facebook passes the buck, literally

Instead of creating the initial facebook platform and increasing ways to capitalize on the user base in-house, facebook wants the facebook developer network to take up where they left off, not only in the development but in the capitalization of the large user base that constantly grows on facebook each day. By allowing the creative development pool of THE ENTIRE PLANET work to enrich the facebook experience.

This means:

1. facebook is continually adding more to its users (in the form of applications) > constant fresh content and ideas means the facebook user does not get bored
2. facebook developers’ success depends on the success of facebook > if applications are being marketed, facebook must be marketed alongside
3. the more there is for the user to interact with on facebook, the more time they spend there > facebook traffic increases as applications’ traffic increases

Pretty smart, facebook people. ;)

But this does not mean facebook just leaves developers to their own devices. To help those wishing to create a facebook application, they have a number of resources available to help along the way. The facebook developer information and wiki both provide the basic details relating to FBML and all the other strange facebook coding languages and as well, you can download the facebook platform. In addition to this, facebook in the fbfund provides a service that matches venture capitalists with developers seeking grants to launch and maintain their their facebook application. facebook is constantly seeking to improve conditions for facebook app developers by improving the facebook platform, listening to developer feedback and hosting facebookcamps such as the one I attended last Tuesday.

Win / Win

At the end of the day, everybody wins. facebook wins, developers win, marketers win, the users win. I suppose there may come a day when facebook users may lose interest, but that is a long, long, long time from now. In the meantime, facebook passes the buck to application developers: the literal and proverbial buck.

In related news, Matt Huggins has recently finished his first facebook application, and it will soon be released. Good luck Matt!

Posted: October 12th, 2007 under Web 2.0, Internet Marketing.
Comments: 2

Today, as I stated in a previous post, I attended facebookcampToronto2 and I want to spend the next week or so discussing some of the aspects of facebook that should be of interest to new ventures, and to existing brands that want to expand and grow on facebook. But before all that, here are my rough notes from the evening. If you happened to be there, and there is something that I missed, feel free to add this in the comments. Due to technological constraints I was unable to live blog this, but I believe it is still relevant for those who did not attend and want to learn more about the event. You might also want to check out the Global Nerdy blog’s coverage of facebookcamptoronto2 as the presenters were talking really fast near the end due to time constraints, and so I may have missed a few points.

Read more »

Posted: October 10th, 2007 under Web 2.0, Internet Marketing.
Comments: 14

Digg has introduced a few important changes, including the addition of profiles which will vastly help with networking capabilities. Now, Digg has introduced filtering options which will allow users to select what news they do not want to read. So goodbye Britney and Paris!

I spoke recently about the specialization of social bookmarking and social networking sites, and I see this as a very positive move for Digg. This means that users will no longer have to sort through unwanted information to get to what they really want to read, and those submitting to Digg will find interested readers that much easier. Applying the filters is easy - simply login to your Digg account and then “Customize” your account, selecting which news is relevant to you. Then, you can also filter profanity as well as how many Diggs an item must have before you view it.

With these new filters in mind though, I see the grave possibility that people might want to submit to the wrong category to ensure that their news was seen. I am looking forward to experimenting with these new options, and hopefully I will never have to read about those stupid girls on Digg again. :P

Posted: September 28th, 2007 under Web 2.0.
Comments: 1

On October 9, I plan on attending FaceBookCampToronto2, an “unconference” that is part of FaceBook Developer Garage, and it brings together developers and marketers to discuss the creation and promotion of FaceBook apps. The first FaceBookCamp that occurred on August 8 was geared more to the development crowd, but the agenda for the October 9 FaceBookCamp seems geared more to the marketers among us.

I am still making my mind up whether I want to live-blog the event, or if I want to cover it in a series over the week following. But I will be be covering the events of FaceBookCamp Toronto on October 9 in any case for those who are unable to attend.

For those interested and who will be in the Toronto area on October 9, you can confirm your attendance to FaceBookCampToronto2 here: BarCamp wiki

To learn more about FaceBook application development, check out The Entrepreneurial Blog of Matt Huggins: 5 Simple Reasons You Should Become A FaceBook Application Developer where Matt discusses the benefits and opportunities for developers utilizing the FaceBook platform.

Posted: September 26th, 2007 under Web 2.0, Internet Marketing.
Comments: 10

The social phenomena of specialization is not a new - every human pursuit has a tendency to specialization it seems. It makes sense, really. Specialization allows for greater productivity, which is mutually beneficial for all those involved. It seems that social bookmarking and social networking sites are not to be left out in this tendency towards specialization.

Social bookmarking and social networking allow the user to interact with other users, and for the user to also contribute to the site. Over the past several years, generalized websites for these purposes have achieved great success. Now, specialized sites are popping up to “increase the productivity” of users. For example, the recent unveiling of Sphinn, the social bookmarking site for internet marketers, has been very well-received by the online community. And today, I learn that there is now a social networking site for people who like hip-hop. StreetCred is being endorsed by some big names in music, and even in beta has garnered some attention. There are many examples I could site, but these are some better examples of social networking / bookmarking that truly endeavor to fill a niche market.

Benefits of the specialization of Web 2.0

• Users will not have to sift through as much information they do not want
• Those submitting the information will reach the people who are looking for it much quicker
• Tighter social community based on shared interests and abilities
• The principle of comparative advantage would dictate that in fact users of the various social sites would indeed benefit from information being “produced” in “different places” by those who were especially in a position to produce it
• From a marketing perspective - the more places to market the better

Drawbacks of the Specialization of Web 2.0

• Encourages a myopic view by reducing the diversity of information the user sees

Some suggestions for good social bookmarking and social networking sites:

• Social bookmarking site with news about social bookmarking
• Social networking site for cowboys :)
• Social networking where you can list dance parties
• Social bookmarking site for spammers - maybe if we give them their own site, they won’t bother with the others… ?

Posted: September 20th, 2007 under Web 2.0, Internet Marketing.
Comments: 7