Facebook Developers Garage Phoenix

Tonight I went to the Phoenix Facebook Developers Garage. I heard Dave Morin from Facebook (FB) talk about the company, the platform, and developing apps. I didn't stay for the whole event but look forward to hearing about it from others who stayed. But here are my notes from Dave's presentation.

• Facebook is fundamentally a technology company. They make software whose goal is to be a social utility. They want to help people share information.
• FB has 50+ million active users.
• Over half of the FB users are outside the US. FB is the biggest social network in the UK.
• Over half of the users return daily. "We provide utility almost as good as email."
• FB is #6 on the web. Below Google and above eBay. *
• FB's key is the social graph. The social graph is a network of people connections.
• Build a FB application to "build a business of have fun on the side." (At least Dave was realistic about it.)
• FB application developers have the same access to FB as the creators themselves.
• FB has a grant program for application developers called fbFund.
• Over 8000 applications built in just over 8 months. Dave said they are "humbled" by such a response from the development community.
• FB recently released "pages" which allow non-people to have a profile or page. This is for bands, companies, etc.
• When asked, Dave said FB is evaluating Open Social and they think it's cool. But right now, FB is not participating. One of the reasons is their concern over people's privacy and they don't think Open Social has high enough privacy.
• For more information, go to developers.facebook.com.

*This made me wonder what stats Google shares in their presentations.

All in all, it was a very good presentation. Dave Morin is a great speaker. He came across passionate and down to earth. He was extremely comfortable answering questions. This guy is definitely the right person to have in front of a crowd. I was very impressed.

The event was at the Tempe Center for the Arts, which is a new and incredibly beautiful space. I'm definitely going back to enjoy other events there & to check out the incredible architecture. Thanks to the sponsors for doing this - Terralever, Go Daddy, and Microsoft. The open bar and appetizers were especially nice!