Facebook Developer Garage London f8 2011 special event report from Newspepper on Vimeo.
I was reporting at the Facebook Developers Garage London f8 special – held in the beautiful Glaziers Hall in London Bridge on September 22, 2011 . FDGL is for all London developers, entrepreneurs and marketing professionals interested in utilising the largest social platform in the world, Facebook.
The atmosphere was buzzing with intrigue as this time we were to watch a live stream of Mark Zuckerburg announcing FB changes in SF. (http://mashable.com/2011/09/22/facebook-f8-live-video/) .
Rumours and thoughts of what was to be unveiled had been flooding the developers blogasphier. FB has been busy prior to the major announcements with adding a real time ticker, revamped friendlist for the organised folk on FB and also a subscribe button which means you can keep your finger on the pulse of those you like. Reminiscent of twitter but perhaps more powerful? We shall see.
The predictions at this event varied in the room however not one person I interviewed mentioned the concept of the ”Timeline” which is to be the story of your life (like an online scrapbook). And to the extent that applications will play an active part in that time line. This got developers all hot and excited under the collar about its potential. The general consensus was that the ‘’Timeline’’ was a clever idea to view data that previously was stored under older posts. Basically FB was to become more personal and was utilising old information and presenting this in a format that would be user friendly. More your own digital scrapbook if you will. So it will link when you listened to what song, downloaded what application and pictures of the view you had while you ran using your app. All in a timeline from when you were born.
The further scope of the changes are endless. And an advertisers/marketers dream.
To conclude, it was a great event hosted by Facebook Developers Garage London. And with FB’s major announcements it will be interesting to hear at the next FDGL about how the developers have progressed on thoughts regarding integration of FB’s new changes to their work for clients going forward.
The next event will include a special extended presentation with John Haggis from Sheridan Solicitors, talking about Facebook’s privacy policies, Alex Housley from Rummble will talk about social recommendations using the Facebook Graph and collaborative filtering, and Iskandar Najmuddin, Technical Director at Syncapse (formerly Nudge) will give us a bumper-sized rundown on all the latest platform updates in the last three months, including those announced at f8 2011 in late September.
Keep an eye out for their regular events on http://www.facebookgarage.org.uk/events
Grab a ticket for tonight on http://fdgloctober2011-websiteeventdescription.eventbrite.com/
Till then folks!!
