TechFold - Bold tech & web commentary

Great Facebook App Building Tutorial

Here’s a great Facebook Application building tutorial that walks the reader through the entire “Hello world” process, including authentication, the “facebook markup language” and so on. I’ve been meaning to join Facebook and play around with the platform for a while - this provides a good way to do so.

facebook platform

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What Facebook Means for Microsoft: shark jumping

Note: I wrote this post weeks or months ago (whenever MS invested in Facebook) and never had the chance to proof read it. So - its not exactly topical anymore, but what the heck - here it is. It is all the funnier now that “Microsoft leading the pack” has become “Microsoft being more or less the sole investor at a ridiculous valuation.”

Microsoft leading the pack in “getting in” on Facebook is a sad day for Redmond.

In a nutshell: MS has gone from leading to frantically following. They are playing Google’s game, they are letting Google define success for them. From a position of unassailable strength, they now look like a floundering giant desperate to buy a lifeline from anyone. Vista set the stage; Aquantive kicked it off; Ballmer’s posturing about purchasing 20 companies in five years (or whatever it was) confirmed it; Facebook closes the case. Microsoft has jumped the shark.

The Boxed OS is Done

To paraphrase: MS has lost its core competency in marketing OS’s and is now trying to change course, lurching like some business-model frankenstein into Web 2.0. Blame it on Apple, Web 2.0, the DOJ, or internal politics - the delays, non-compelling feature-set, and poor quality of Vista make clear that the time of the boxed OS is over. Same general story for productivity apps. MS is looking 5 - 10 years ahead - and sees a pretty bleak landscape for their current product family.

Which is a fantastic opportunity for MS: they have 5 - 10 years of cash cow milking to invest in their future and shape the next generation web - but instead they’ve chosen the reactive path of acquisition and desperate competition with Google.

facebook microsoft

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Quoted: Blogger Jon Swift, banned from Facebook

Blogger Jon Swift was banned from Facebook for joining under a pseudonym:

What exactly does “real name” mean? Would Bob Dylan be banned if he didn’t sign up as Robert Zimmerman? [from Jon Swift]

The most interesting thing about the whole silly affair is to wonder how Facebook knows that Jon Swift was not his real name. He didn’t get a request for ID or anything, so how does Facebook “know,” with enough authority to ban, that a name is fake?

facebook jon swift

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Wantrepreneurs: Always wear protection with the Wallet NDA

If you’re like me, you like to tell everyone around you all of the time about whatever mashup/widget/paradigm-shifting-whatever is on your mind at any given moment. BUT: as they say at the ‘wag, “one person’s oral contract is another person’s dorm room chit-chat” - which can lead to your killer ideas getting built and monetized by someone else… not good!

So - to protect myself, I built the TechFold Wallet / Pocket NDA - a short and sweet non-disclosure agreement that I get friends, family, & coworkers to sign whenever chit-chat turns to business. Its fast, free, and easy to print, and fits perfectly in your wallet - always ready to CYA!

And best of all, in the spirit of litigation 2.0, its free! Click here for the Word file, then print, fold, tear, pocket — and profit! You can bet Tyler Winklevoss wishes he’d had one of these in his wallet when he started chatting with Facebook…

Step 1: Print!

Step 2: Fold along the dotted line…

Step 3: Tear along the creases…

Step 4: Fold in half into business-card sized pieces…

And you’re done! Have a great, litigation free weekend!

UPDATE: Here’s the full text of the NDA for you to “mashup” as you see fit. Widgetize it baby!

This Non-Disclosure Agreement is between __________________________ (herein referred to as “YOU”) and __________________________ (herein referred to as “ME” or “I”), who desire to discuss a concept or idea thought up by ME. I wish to have this discussion for the purposes of (1) passing the time, (2) getting positive feedback, (3) pitching you for funding, or (4) filling a gap in table conversation. The Parties listed above hereby agree to the following terms as they relate to the disclosure of information considered proprietary by ME.
At no time from the date of this agreement shall YOU directly or indirectly disclose, sell or give any information it receives from ME to any person, firm, or corporation, or use the information for its own benefit, except for the purpose described above, without the express written consent of ME.
Should any dispute arise from or relate to matters covered by this Agreement, the parties agree first to attempt to resolve the matter in confidential, private meetings between the parties or arm wrestling. If this fails to produce a mutually satisfactory resolution, the parties shall, as an alternative to litigation, enter into legally binding arbitration. The parties understand that these methods shall be the sole remedy for any controversy or claim arising out of the matters covered by this Agreement and expressly waive their right to file a law suit or claim against one another for such disputes, except to enforce arbitration decision or the provisions of this paragraph.

connectu, facebook, litigation, valleywag winklevoss

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To Do: Build things that people actually use

There’s a bunch of buzz today around Dabble’s (yay Canada) new Facebook To-Do list application which boasts a bevy of good features and a typically web-20-attractive UI. Investor Kedrosky points out the social aspect of it (the ability to assign stuff to others and prompt them to get things done), while TC has a good roundup, in which Arrington expresses a “tepid” reaction.

And “tepid” is the reaction that I’d agree with. Not out of some objection to the Facebook walled garden or outsourced social-net model, but more to the core concept of online To-Do lists themselves. I think I speak for the vast majority of people when I say that unless your a professional PM, To-Do lists are ad-hoc affairs, with scrawled notes jotted at inopportune moments, collected in a miscellany of crumpled papers. I’ve tried using online tools before (TaDa List) but have found that usage drops off rapidly after a brief period of initial enthusiasm as the tool just doesn’t support real-world use cases. I always end up with paper to-do lists jotted down on the go that are out of sync with the web to-do list that in itself becomes a chore to update. IMHO, a good moleskine is a better option.

So - I’m not bothering with online to-do lists until there’s a really good mobile/web option that I can access on my phone, and online.

dabbledb, facebook todo

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UPDATED: Facebook is the Hamptons/Officer Country, MySpace is Los Angeles/Barracks

The BBC today reports on a demographic survey of Facebook and MySpace users conducted by UC Berkeley. Facebook gets snooty sounding college kids coming from well-heeled families; MySpace gets ethnic-Americans, freaks & iconoclasts, and people from less educated and wealthy backgrounds.

From the article:

Broadly, Ms Boyd found Facebook users tend to be white and come from families who are keen for children to get the most out of school and go on to college.

This division is just another way in which technology is mirroring societal values
Danah Boyd Characterising Facebook users she said: “They are in honors classes, looking forward to the prom, and live in a world dictated by after school activities.”

By contrast, the average MySpace teenager tendeds to come from families where parents did not go to college, she said.

Ms Boyd also found far more teens from immigrant, Latino and Hispanic families on MySpace as well as many others who are not part of the “dominant high school popularity paradigm”. [from: the BBC]

Well then - Facebook is the squeaky clean quarteback/cheerleader all-American socialnet, and MySpace is the grunge band, hip-hop, lowrider underground.

Implications?

Facebook gets the money. Members with money, heading into moneyed professions, Facebooking the whole way.

MySpace gets the volume. As a catch-all for everyone else, MySpace will continue to lead in membership and usage volume.

Read juicer quotes on Boing Boing, btw.

UPDATE

From the Guardian:

In the paper she also conjectured that a recent decision by the US military to ban service personnel from using sites including MySpace showed evidence of social fissures in the forces.

“A month ago, the military banned MySpace but not Facebook. This was a very interesting move because there’s a division, even in the military. Soldiers are on MySpace; officers are on Facebook.” [from: the Guardian]

class, demographics, facebook, myspace social+networking

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LinkedIn to announce Knee-Jerk reaction to Facebook

LinkedIn has announced that over the next 9 months they’re going to be releasing API’s for developers to build off of. The timing of the announcement and execution scream “knee jerk” to me.

Despite historical and continuing growth, LinkedIn is under direct threat from Facebook in the professional-networking market. Facebook gets more users and more functionality, its network effects are going to push hard at other social networks. And Facebook’s demographic is going to steal more and more from LinkedIn as their core college market matures and graduates into the workforce - taking Facebook with them.

Mathew Ingram describes the situation even more aggresively, asking “Is it too late for LinkedIn to catch Facebook?” TechCrunch thinks LinkedIn may have life in it yet, but points out that Facebook’s openness makes it a compelling one-stop shop. ParisLemon thinks there’s an opportunity for Facebook and LinkedIn to combine forces. IdentityWoman points out that LinkedIn is passive whereas Facebook’s focus on daily interaction promotes daily use.

api, facebook, linkedin platform

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RedHedd.com - social networking for…. redheads.

RedHedd.com is a social network for redheads, which as their press release states, is modelled on MySpace. Well, yes, it looks like a red-themed MySpace clone, and seems to have all of the same features, as well as a niche vertical to appeal to and generate buzz around.

But: is it a business? IMHO - no. Its attempting to monetize what could as easily be a Facebook group by building it inside its own walled garden. No doubt it could garner a small, yet dedicated following, but I don’t see it as sustainable in the long run.

This isn’t a critique of RedHedd specifically, btw. That’s a critique of vertical social networking as a business model in general. The only organizations that are capable of cashing in on vertical networks are white labeller / aggregators like Ning that can pool miniscule revenue streams from thousands of properties; even that model is marginal IMHO.

At the end of the day, why join another network when your existing memberships (Facebook) provide the same group features and social networking functionality with a larger member pool to draw on, and without the added overhead of another membership?

facebook, ning, red, red hair, redheads, redhedd social networking

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From the Press Release Bin: Another WebOS

The WebOS space has one more member: Synthasite, which joins Teqlo (my first post!), YouOS, Xcerion, Facebook, and others I’m sure. The “WebOS space” is loosely defined, but all members share the common goal of trying to create the development platform on which mashups and applications are built and distributed - a lucrative market — if it really exists.

I’ve argued elsewhere that trying to create development environments like this has relatively little marginal benefit: anyone with the skill and motivation to create a web application will do so in the tool of their choice. Windows thrived as a platform because it provided a set of API’s and a hardware abstraction layer that made developing apps easier; the web generally doesn’t suffer the same level of complexity until you’re into the realm enterprise-strength applications - which these WebOS players aren’t targeting anyway.

So - where they fit into the web ecosystem I have no idea. I admire all players for the technical challenge that they’ve taken on, but I’m not holding my breath for any to become a breakaway success - with the exception of Facebook who - interestingly enough - created the market for their platform before creating the platform itself.

development, facebook, google, ide, microsoft, synthasite, teqlo, web os, webos, xcerion youos

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Facebook Acquisition - Round X; I bet Google

I call Google FTW. The internets are all atwitter that facebook is on the block again - the Guardian says Yahoo is at it again; Battelle speculates that GOOG might snipe it like they did with DoubleClick.

Personally, I’ve thought Google is the more likely candidate for a while. Despite their occaisonal dropped balls on acquisitions (dodgeball), Google is about two things: platform and volume, which feed off each other and together are monetizeable. Advertising? Google built the platform. Search? Same. Video? Yup. Any area of online tech that you look into, Google has a major foundational play under way - if not a platform in a traditional sense, then a product option that has so much market power that it is the defacto platform or standard in its space.

Except social networking. Orkut, however you slice it, is an abject failure. Facebook would fill that gap, and the Facebook platform philosophy works nicely with Google. Google and Facebook could exchange hooks, interfaces, and API’s very quickly and create integrated products that deliver real value FAST.

Final note - I remember comments from GOOG’s CEO from a few weeks ago to the effect that Google wants to be able to tell you what you should be doing for the weekend. THAT’S A SOCIAL FEATURE.

So - when all is said and done, I call Google for the buy, Yahoo for the runner up. The only thing to derail this would be the SEC.

billions, dodgeball, facebook, GOOG, google, microsoft, orkut, sec, social, socialnetworking, weekend, yahoo YHOO

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