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The "Community WordPress Facebook Plugin" – Why You Should Contribute

Posted on September 3, 2008 by jessestay

There are rumors that Facebook has been working on their own WordPress plugin for Facebook. This is troubling for those of us developers that are developing for Facebook Connect, as it shows that Facebook could in one sweep, wipe any developer writing for the Facebook Connect platform out without any advanced notice. It only appeared that in the past, this type of thing only happened on the Facebook website itself, as Facebook has a right to, but I’ve seen it myself with my own development on Facebook Connect today.

Fair enough. I like competition, although I’d love this to be a community effort. So, since we know Facebook is working on their own WordPress plugin for Facebook, and we know Facebook isn’t willing to divulge their code yet. Since I’ve already devoted 20 or so of my own hours to the exact same project with no knowledge from Facebook, and am just now learning that Facebook was working on this behind the scenes incognito with no involvement from the community, I’d like to release my own plugin to the public, under the GPL v2.0 today, in the hopes the public can help with development and further building of this plugin, as a community, not just under Facebook’s roof.

It’s very troubling to see Facebook develop on external apps outside of Facebook like this – it only shows that Facebook is not afraid to encroach on other developers’ projects and that any one of us is at risk of having a useful project, our time and effort (I had no intentions on making money from this), wiped out in an instant. Sure, Facebook has every right to compete, but the least courtesy of notifying developers it already knows would be competition. With such a WordPress plugin this also encroaches on Six Apart’s announced integration with Facebook Connect, and puts Facebook in direct competition with Six Apart instead of making it Automattic’s problem.

It’s my sincere hope that Facebook decides not to continue such projects internally, but instead contributes to existing projects if they must do so. Facebook should in no way be competing with the developers that use their platform without warning, or risk us not being willing to contribute such things in the future. Let’s work together on this Facebook – how about a “we need help” board, or an “internal projects” board so we can know what you’re working on in advance. In this way we can work with you instead of parallel to you and hours spent doing so won’t be wasted. Or how about a little nudge to people like Six Apart saying, “we may just have to compete with you on this in the future” so their own time isn’t wasted with the integration.

Why should I keep building external web apps that integrate and send users to Facebook if Facebook is just going to replace my web apps in the end anyway?

So, I’m going to release my code here right now in hopes we can make this a community project – it requires you to set up your own app for your blog under the Facebook Developers site (just set your callback URL to your own website’s URL), and you must take your application key and enter it into the admin section. Only developers of the Facebook app itself can login through Facebook Connect until Facebook launches (one more advantage Facebook has over us developers – they know when they are launching, and therefore know how much time they have to develop these things, another reason to leave it to us developers in order to keep it fair). To install on your blog after doing so, just unzip the folder in your plugins folder, and activate your plugin under the plugins section in WordPress. After that, any Facebook user will be able to leave comments, under their own authentication, Facebook avatar, and name without having to re-enter it each time. We’ll be integrating this more in the future – if you can help please let me know! My project is a community project, not owned by Facebook, completely owned by me and you for the benefit of the community.

You can download it here.

You can see it in action on my test site, http://socialmediacast.staynalive.com – check out the Hello World post to see the existing comments. Note you will not be able to log in to Facebook Connect on that site because you are not a developer on the app for that site.

Now, I know I ranted a bit – it’s late, but I hope this makes some sort of sense. Am I out of line here? Should I just scrap my code completely and let Facebook do this? Is it a wise move for Facebook to keep making external apps like this that integrate with Facebook? What’s the best way for Facebook to approach this? I welcome your comments below.

I’m Changing Gears

Posted on September 2, 2008 by jessestay

I mentioned earlier I was going to announce a big change this week. I’m “on the move“, as Jeremiah Owyang would put it. Today was my first day working full time at a new Silicon Valley startup with offices here in Utah, where I will be leading their Social Product strategy moving forward. I am phasing off my regular consulting, and moving to this new Entrepreneurial effort in helping them grow.

At the moment, I can’t reveal much more, other than the fact that we’re building the next era in Interactive Entertainment on the iPhone. The company I’m working with right now started out as a client of mine, and I liked their product so much I decided it would be worth helping them out full time. I believe fully that we are going to change much of the way you watch TV today. We will be launching most likely next week, and you can follow the Twitter account @MediaMyWay to catch our launch announcement and follow our updates (I’ll also point you there from my Twitter account when we launch – we’ll announce it there first!). Other Twitter accounts you can follow for updates and “clues” are @JustintheWhitt, @Romay, and our CEO, @BradPelo.

How will this affect the other stuff I do? In reality, not much is changing, other than what I do full time. I have received permission to keep SocialToo.com going part-time, as it has, unless it takes off. Expect some very cool things to come from SocialToo in the near future – we’re working on a completely new design and a really cool new feature that will be released in the next couple weeks.

As far as my blogging and book-writing is concerned, I see nothing changing, and I intend fully to continue blogging regular, unbiased articles that I feel inspire and educate. I will disclose where necessary if I feel my current employment has any influence in what I am writing. I still hope to continue writing in other capacities as well, as long as speak as I’m asked to do (I’m speaking in Dallas next week to the Dallas Chamber of Commerce, in fact – come see me speak!).

So, keep watching the @MediaMyWay Twitter account, and you can also follow this blog and I’ll be sure you’re aware of the latest of our happenings (we’ll have a company blog here shortly, which I’ll let you know about). In the meantime I’ll keep posting regular, educational, and original content as I always have and always will. “Stay” Tuned!

Happy Blog Day 2008

Posted on September 1, 2008 by jessestay

For those unaware, today is “Blog Day“, a day intended to allow bloggers to share their favorite blogs in hopes that readers can diversify the blogs they currently read and learn of other unknowns that they may not yet be subscribed to. I figure I’d join in on the cause several others have joined today, and share my favorite blogs. I’m going to take a slightly different spin on it and I’ll share with you my top 5 “shared” items from Google Reader (in the last 30 days) based on Google Trends (you can find these statistics for yourself via the “Trends” link to the left in Google Reader).

Picture 13.png (Please note – you can see the top recommendations I re-share on Reader in the image to the left – I did not include those in this list.) If you’d like to follow what I share via Google Reader, please feel free to subscribe via my Google Reader shared items feed. Here are the top 5:

#1. LouisGray.com (Subscribe via RSS) — Okay, my #1 was actually TechCrunch, but they get enough attention. For those unaware, recently I became a guest-blogger over at LouisGray.com. In the last year I became aware of Louis Gray and his blog (I think it was through Robert Scoble, in fact) and realized he has extremely insightful content. He’s also extremely transparent and open about his blog and statistics, pointing out other blogs that he likes, and helping other up and coming blogs he thinks are important get attention. About a month or two ago he approached me and asked me if I would like to guest-blog regularly on his site and I jumped at the chance – it was an extreme honor that he would think of me. If you’re looking for the next Robert Scoble, Louis is your guy – not only is he smart, insightful, up on all the latest news and technology, but he has a ton in common with me as well. Like me, he’s a faithful Mormon and a very strong family man. We share many of the same views on technology and what’s coming up next. Not only that, but we’re even the same age!

#2. InsideFacebook.com (Subscribe via RSS) — I have also guest-blogged at InsideFacebook, but Justin Smith has long had one of my favorite Facebook blogs (I also recommend you check out Nick O’Neill’s AllFacebook.com (Subscribe via RSS)). His posts are well thought-out, and he covers many subjects in detail about latest Facebook news and information.

#3. CenterNetworks.com (Subscribe via RSS) — Allen Stern, of CenterNetworks.com, is hilarious! His posts are put in a very informative manner and in a way that keeps you entertained, while in many cases, educate you at the same time. Allen has a lot of experience and is a good guy to get advice from. In general, Allen’s posts are in the form of a video and short text description, and the subjects range anywhere from how to monetize your blog, to making fun of the latest news, to showing opinion on what FriendFeed or other sites could do better.

#4. Oh, Identica! (Subscribe via RSS) — My friend, Marina Martin, put this together in a response to her leaving Twitter and embracing Identi.ca, as a resource to others trying to figure out how they can use Identi.ca as well. Previously, Marina had a similar blog for Twitter, and the name comes from the fact that she and her boyfriend met through Twitter. Oh, Identi.ca! covers almost everything you need to know with tips and tricks on what you can do with Identi.ca that will make it useful.

#5. FaceReviews.com (Subscribe via RSS) — Rodney Rumford started this as a great way to show off new Facebook applications and reviews of those applications. Recently he has also started covering Twitter and other subjects, all with superb content and research behind them. Rodney’s been doing this stuff for a long time, and his experience shows.

These are some of my own favorites. They are all based on the number of shares on Google Reader. Some day I will have to post some of my non-shared favorites that perhaps don’t post as often. Hopefully some of you that read this can now share yours – I’d love to have some new blogs on this list next year!