Facebook NoteMix Demo Q & A with Colin Kierans
October 20, 2007 — GeraldQ: Can you tell us a little bit about NoteMix?
Colin Kierans: NoteMix is an application that allows classmates to make their course notes together in a simple wiki-like way.
Q: What’s the Facebook advantage? How is your NoteMix Facebook app different from a plain old web application/widget? How does it tap into the social network?
Colin Kierans: One of the main problems with Wikis and easily editable information on the web is the ease of vandalism. With Facebook the anonymity is greatly reduced, and therefore trust goes up. With people using their real names the odds of someone vandalizing a page are reduced.
Q: Inside NoteMix: What languages (PHP, Java, Ruby, etcterea), libraries and framworks have you used to develop NoteMix?
Colin Kierans: I use PHP5 with a MySQL database. I have my own set of functions and tools that I use to make all my facebook application.
Q: Any tips and tricks or advice you can share on developing, designing or marketing Facebook apps?
Colin Kierans: Create your own child class of the Facebook API class that is given to you. Give it some useful functions like ones for displaying errors and success messages. Use this class for all your facebook applications. Make your learning curve very flat. Users aren’t likely to poke around your application if they don’t find what they’re looking for right away.
Thanks Colin Kierans for your time. Interested in more? Join us at Vancouver’s first Facebook Developer Garage.
