Facebook (aka. Crackbook)
Sat 22 Sep 2007
OK, so after ignoring many “Friend Requests” over the past few months, I’ve finally caved in and joined Crackbook Facebook. It appears some people use that other name for it because it’s possible to waste a lot of time in there.
What tipped me over the edge was the fact that the upcoming Australian Blogging Conference has a Facebook page. This, I had to see.
As it turns out, I’m glad I had a look. What caught my eye was the “Developer” link at the bottom of each page. Here I discovered excellent documentation on the Facebook Platform, the API used to develop Facebook Applications. As one who is always interested in new ways of delivering data to the masses, I paid attention.
Now imagine that I had access to some data that a large number of people were interested to see (eg, the World Championship Marbles League, the Southern Oscillation Index, the countdown to Mrs Fitz’s next birthday). I’d be keen to publish this as widely as possible.
First, I would publish a web service to supply this data. Then I would distribute
- a Vista Gadget
- a SharePoint web part, and now
- a Facebook Application.
Here’s a link to my Facebook Profile.
September 22nd, 2007 at 22:51
Doh - I was hoping you would reveal whether or not I should join the damn thing!
I mean, I joined MySpace after a friend took a “MySpace” photo of me, out of sheer boredom. Does one have to be on both MySpace AND Facebook? So many questions, so little time.
September 23rd, 2007 at 18:46
Hi Stuart,
Facebook seems a lot better to me than MySpace. For a start it seems harder on Facebook to use anything but your real name so there’s a lot less (what should I call it?) mind-numbing stupidity.
I’m pretty sure that I’ll be going to my grave* without leaving a crappy MySpace page behind.
* Except that I think cremation would be a more environment-friendly option.
September 24th, 2007 at 16:18
I find Facebook much better than MySpace - I’ve abandoned my MySpace altogether.
Great to see you on Facebook!!
September 24th, 2007 at 19:24
G’day Princess,
Yeah, you were among the earliest Facebook inviters. Sorry I ignored you for so long.
Thanks for the invite.
September 27th, 2007 at 12:22
Say it isn’t so!!!!! Oh noes!!
September 27th, 2007 at 13:08
Don’t panic, Steph. I won’t be giving up the “real world” viz, blogging. (Although, I have been a little slack lately.)