Welcome to my first ever blog post! There is a fair chance you are here because you have been reading Prof. Martin Weller's blog post about the new Course profiles application that we have been developing to enable OU students to share with their friends on Facebook. If you haven't read his post then have a look at http://nogoodreason.typepad.co.uk/no_good_reason/2007/10/first-ou-facebo.html. It has been a very interesting experience working on this application and has been very worthwhile as a developer to work in this new environment. A lot of the credit must go to Tony Hirst, Stuart Brown and Martin Weller for planing, design, ideas and support. If you have a Facebook account you can install the application by clicking on this URL http://www.facebook.com/add.php?api_key=06d85b85540794e2fd02e9ef83206bf6. There are a whole host of new features in the pipeline for this application, but feel free to contribute to the discussion forums in the application to give your ideas and opinions on how the application should be shaped.
From a developer perspective it has been an interesting experience to operate in Facebook which is often described as a "walled garden". It's a bit like being in somebody else's house; you have to understand their rules and ways of doing things. In the world of Facebook this means understanding what the terms and conditions allow you to do and not do, how to fit in and the expected norms of behaviour. To this end I have found having some knowledge of law very useful in helping me understand these agreements. It is no substitute of course for advice from a qualified lawyer, but useful nonetheless to constantly be wary of potential pitfalls (like having your application banned!). Another interesting aspect of the platform is the news feed feature. Here you can pretty much sit and watch the world go by, but at the same time pick up valuable knowledge on how people interact with each other in this space.
If you are a developer you can easily get started in the Facebook platform by visiting their developer website. If you are not on Facebook, it is worth a try. You might be surprised about how much you get out of 21st century social networking.