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Utah Facebook Developers / Social Media Developers Garage This Tuesday

Posted on by jessestay

I’ve announced it on the group page, but I’d like to announce that the second annual Utah Facebook and Social Media Garage is this Tuesday, October 30th at 7pm at Noah’s in Lindon. The last one went really well I thought, many of us were still very new to the Facebook craze though. Since then there have been several prominent Utahns that have had successes in the Facebook development arena.

We have 2 great speakers that will be addressing us:

Jason McGowan, the lead developer and designer of We’re Related, which went from 0 to 100,000 users in several days will be addressing us. Also, Thom Allan, the “other Utah Facebook Developer” (if you read my blog you’ll get that) of Digital Thom will be addressing us.

Already, I’m expecting 10-20 people to be at the event. It should be a strong event for the West Coast Facebook enthusiasts! It’s BYOS (Bring your own snacks), so bring something, whether it’s snacks or soda to contribute to the pot. I’m also working on some schwag – we’ll see with short notice if we can get anything though. The next event we should have a ton of stuff like that. This event will be sponsored by WebWave Technologies Incubator and Twelve Horses.

To find Noah’s, see:

http://mynoahs.com/locations.php

The best way to find it is look at the picture in the link above – you can see the building from all around. I’ll look forward to seeing you there!

UPDATE: The location has changed. Thanks to Perfect Search Corporation, we were able to secure a last minute location to host the event. The event will now be held at Perfect Search Corporation in the Fibernet Building in Orem. Same time, same speakers. The address is:

1145 S 800 E Suite 325
Orem, UT

Our instructions are to stay out of the development areas and in the conference rooms only. To get in, if no one is at the door, please call me on my cell phone and we’ll send some one to let you in: (801) 979-7576. I apologize if this inconvenience. Thanks again to Tim Stay and Perfect Search Corporation for their willingness to host our event.

Here’s a Google Maps to that location: http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&time=&date=&ttype=&q=1145+S+800+E+Suite+325,+Orem,+UT&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=29.219963,76.025391&ie=UTF8&ll=40.276612,-111.676068&spn=0.006859,0.018561&z=16&iwloc=addr&om=1

Twitter’s Application Directory

Posted on by jessestay

A few months ago, Facebook announced they were releasing their platform to all developers via an open API. At the same time, they release an Application Directory indexing and categorizing all of the applications for their platform. I was wondering today if Twitter, who had an open API even before Facebook, had the same thing. It turns out they do, and it’s on the Fan wiki:

http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Apps

Not quite 5000+ like Facebook, but there are quite a number of apps I didn’t know about. What Twitter apps are your favorites?

Supporting School Vouchers the Social Way

Posted on by jessestay

I know a lot of you bloggers out there are pro-school vouchers. If not, blog about it and link to me! Utah is about to have one of the most heated votes in the history of the state, as it gets ready to allow residents to vote for or against School Vouchers. “Referendum 1” it is called, and if you vote for it, you are for school vouchers.

What are school vouchers? Of course the details haven’t fully been worked out yet, but ideally school vouchers allow those sending their children to Private Schools and paying for school out of their own pocket to collect a “voucher”. Ideally, if you to receive a $3000 voucher that voucher would allow the possibility of paying as little as $100/month to send your child to Private school. Suddenly, a lot more people will be able to afford private school, encouraging more private schools to form to take advantage of this, encouraging competition among private schools and public schools alike. Classrooms will be smaller, and as such, education will be better and more focused for the children we care for.

Why are people against school vouchers? A lot of teachers, due to the smaller class sizes in the public schools, will be forced out of their jobs if they aren’t doing a good job. Because of this, the Teacher’s Unions are stepping up to protect those teachers that maybe aren’t cutting it, and are on the chopping block, were school vouchers to be handed out. Teachers would be forced to actually work and compete for their skills – only the best teachers would be able to stay. This sounds great for our kids, doesn’t it? It doesn’t sound so great for the teachers that are at risk, which is why the Teachers Unions are spending so much money to fight against it and tell us it’s “bad for Utah families”.

As bloggers, geeks, and people who understand the digital world, we have a responsibility here. If you are for or against vouchers, you need to speak up. You need to spread the word online and get it out in full force! Only we have such a capability to spread the truth to such a massive audience. We are the social web and we have a responsibility to start the chains to get the word out!

So I’m publishing a few links for you pro-voucher bloggers out there. This affects even those outside Utah. If vouchers succeed, other states in the Union will be looking towards Utah to see how successful they are here. If you are outside Utah, donate to this cause! Here are some links you should share with your friends and sign up for yourselves:

http://www.votefor1.com/ – the official “pro-vouchers” site

http://www.choiceineducation.org/ – Parents for Choice in Education, the supporters of VoteFor1

http://www.utahtaxpayers.org/

http://www.childrenfirstutah.org/

http://www.citizensfortaxfairness.org/x_home.asp

And of course, my Facebook “Causes” cause (join and spread to your Facebook Friends!): http://apps.facebook.com/causes/view_cause/23050?recruiter_id=6882383

So, if you’re a blogger, blog about this! If you’re on Twitter, Twitter your feelings – twitter this blog entry! Jaiku – Jaiku it! Add the Causes app above and send it to all your friends. This affects everyone, and everyone will be affected eventually. We have a responsibility as Social experts and users to utilize these great tools to pass on the word!

Twitter Launches Facebook Status Updates

Posted on by jessestay

I noticed yesterday that Twitter has officially launched the ability to update Facebook through your updates on Twitter. You just click on the Twitter app within Facebook, and you’ll see a link that says, “Want Twitter to update your Facebook status? Click here.” Click on that, the message will still be there (they say they’re working on that), but all your Twitter updates will now go to your Facebook status as well. Any Twitter replies (with @username in them) stay on Twitter and do not go to Facebook, resolving my previous concern.

UPDATE: Twitter doesn’t ignore just any post with an @username in it. The post has to start with @username for Twitter to ignore the post. I’d love to see it just ignore anything with @username, since Facebook friends won’t know who @username is anyway.

New Wave of Citizen Journalism on Twitter

Posted on by jessestay

Are you in Utah? Do you like getting the latest news, as it happens? Do you like giving back to society?

Well I may have something for you. I’d like to announce the new Twitter Bot, “SLCNews”. The way it works is if you see news happening in your area, you generally can report the news much faster than a News reporter who has to get to the scene. Citizens are usually the first reporters on the scene of a major event, yet the reporters always get the credit. With this Twitter bot, if you see news happening in your area, report it by direct messaging the Twitter user slc news, followed by a short amount of text describing the event happening. All people following the user slcnews will then get Twitter updates (usually on their cell phones) that share with them the news happening. The idea is if enough people pitch in, your news will be much more on time, much more accurate, and very on the scene. I can see this meshing with Twittergrams, links to Flickr photos, etc. all from your cell phone (on your cell phone, all you have to do to send a message to slcnews is to send a text message to 40404 that says “d slcnews accident on I-80” or whatever the news that is happening).

So if you’re on Twitter and live in Utah, please do your part to the community and follow SLCNews! If you’re not on Twitter yet, please click on the link above and join! If there were ever a reason to join Twitter, this is that reason! If you like this and don’t live in Utah, let me know and maybe I’ll add your city next.