Facebook BC Event Q&A with Ahmad Wasfi

Welcome back to the Facebook Demo Q&A Series. Today let’s welcome Ahmad Wasfi talking about the Best of the West 2007 Nominee BC Event.

The Facebook Markup Language (FBML) also offers an elegant way of designing user interfaces. The usual concerns of browser compatibility and screen resolution can soon be part of the past.

Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your BC Event Facebook application?

Ahmad Wasfi: It is an easy and fun place to find, rate, sign-up, and share events in British Columbia. People could locate over 15,000 events occurring in BC. The application allows people to see the important events happening today, over the next seven days, or their favorite events through the custom feeds that they create.

Q: What’s the Facebook advantage? How is your BC Event app different from a plain old web application/widget? How does it tap into Facebook’s social network and circle of friends? How do you keep Facebookers engaged?

Ahmad Wasfi: Events are social experiences and Facebook provides the social context necessary. It represents a separation of concerns very nicely. I can focus on the business logic of the application such as mining the events from the web space of BC and Facebook provides the customer management with a huge base. You can compare between the original Lerna.ca web site and the Facebook one. BC Event enables Facebookers to see the big picture with the ability of zooming in. They can see all the important events happening and can see their favorite ones at the same time. They can share events and see who of their friends are attending them.

Q: Inside your BC Event Facebook app: What languages (PHP, Java, Ruby, etcetera), libraries and frameworks have you used to develop BC Event?

Ahmad Wasfi: I use Java, Servlets, EJBs and Facebook’s Java library.

Q: Any tips and tricks or advice you can share on developing, designing or marketing Facebook apps?

Ahmad Wasfi: Facebook accelerates the development time. There are over 10,000 applications and many more are appearing every day. It provides a new paradigm of applications. It is a big step forward for software developers to concentrate on the business logic.

The Facebook Markup Language (FBML) also offers an elegant way of designing user interfaces. The usual concerns of browser compatibility and screen resolution can soon be part of the past.

Thanks Ahmad Wasfi.

Are you on the “Best of the West 2007″ Facebook Awards Wall? Join Green Gifts, Hockey Pool, Are You Normal?, Scratch and Win, Up4, Music Gifts, Funny Jokes, My Food Fix, BC Event, I’m Reading, Zoykes!, Coffee Shop and send in your nomination!