Facebook Eat-A-Rama Q&A with Sebastian Troen (ActiveState) - Best of the West Facebook Awards Nominee
January 11, 2008 — Gerald
Welcome back to the Facebook Demo Q&A Series. Today let’s welcome Sebastian Troen talking about Eat-A-Rama - the latest Facebook application from the Social Networking Team at ActiveState following up on Up4 - ActiveState’s 1st entry into the social networking world.
Join us for Vancouver’s 2nd Facebook Developer (& Designer) Garage and 1st in the new year and see Eat-A-Rama and other Best of the West Facebook Awards Nominees live in action at the Vancouver Film School Theatre.
Identify the potential revenue sources for a project up front. With Up4 the idea was rather general and so we wanted something that was more focused on a specific area and had clearer revenue options. There’s a huge industry around dining that gives us plenty of options with Eat-A-Rama over and above advertising.
Q: Can you tell us a little bit about your Eat-A-Rama Facebook application?
Sebastian Troen: Eat-A-Rama helps you to discover new restaurants and share your favourite restaurants with your friends. Our social circle contains more relevant information about what’s good and what’s not, where’s the newest hot spot and the best hole in the wall that no one knows about. Coming from Vancouver where going out to eat is such a huge part of our lifestyle we constantly found ourselves trying to figure out new places to eat and remembering places that had been recommended to us. Thus came the idea for Eat-A-Rama.
Q: What’s the Facebook advantage? How does Eat-A-Rama tap into Facebook’s social network and circle of friends? How do you keep Facebookers engaged?
Sebastian Troen: Talking about food and restaurants is naturally a social topic. People love to discuss, debate and share favourite places and not-so-favourite places. In some places discussing the ranking and relative value of restaurants is almost a religion, such as when talking about barbecue places in Kansas City or sushi places in Vancouver. Food is such a subjective thing and we all have opinions on it that we want to share with our friends that it’s a great fit with Facebook where the sharing of ideas and recommendations is so popular. Eat-A-Rama lets people build favourites lists, identify places they want to go or recommend restaurants to their friends. Sometimes the results of a person’s ratings and comments can surprise even themselves.
Q: Inside Eat-A-Rama: What languages (PHP, Java, Ruby, etcetera), libraries and frameworks have you used to develop Eat-A-Rama?
Sebastian Troen: The actual app uses Python, Django and MySQL while the admin app uses Ruby on Rails and MySQL.
Q: Any new tips and tricks or advice you can share on developing, designing or marketing ActiveState’s 2nd Facebook app after Up4?
Sebastian Troen: There’s a couple of tips we can share. First is the issue of scope, it’s really important to get a good handle on the size and scope of the project. We were aiming to have Eat-A-Rama live before Christmas but unfortunately the project was so big that we’re still finishing it off here in January. Which is fine as we’re working on some kickass features, but it’s important to plan for it. Secondly, identify the potential revenue sources for a project up front. With Up4 the idea was rather general and so we wanted something that was more focused on a specific area and had clearer revenue options. There’s a huge industry around dining that gives us plenty of options with Eat-A-Rama over and above advertising.
Q: Any good restaurants in Vancouver you can recommend?
Sebastian Troen: The top restaurants in Vancouver right now according to the Eat-A-Rama community are: Chambar, Hapa Izakaya and Vij’s. Though it’s still early so we encourage everyone to install Eat-A-Rama and rate and review their favourite restaurants. Plus, for January, whenever you invite 5 friends who install Eat-A-Rama, we’re donating $1 to your local food bank.
Thanks Sebastian Troen for your time.
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, My Bus, Class Talk, Mixx Maker and Eat-a-Rama and send in your nomination!
