So Meteor Ireland launched a competition earlier via a Facebook App to find Ireland’s Social Networking King or Queen. Out of curiosity and hearing a little bit of a kerfuffle about it I decided to have a look. Here’s what I was presented with when I interacted with it:

My initial thought was ‘good job I actually bothered to read the ins and outs of this before hitting go’. I’ve never encountered a Facebook app that would what I would term spam your wall as well as your photos, videos & notes and friend’s news feeds.

Needless to say I clicked ‘Leave application’. Apparently Meteor are taking in and considering feedback on this ‘feature’ of the app. Hopefully they will revise it as I can’t imagine you will get too many people clicking ‘allow’ here or if they do being please about the app’s access to so much of an individual’s profile.

It’s got me wondering about the whole Facebook app development process. Do designers and developers follow the same steps they would if they were developing an iPhone or standalone web app? Is there any user testing? What about prototyping or wireframing? What works/doesn’t work?

Response:

..the access screen on our facebook app is a standard access screen as per Facebook’s rules and regulations. Unfortunately the messaging on this cannot be changed, however we can assure you that we don’t access any user’s personal information other than their name, gender and profile pic, which is completely standard for the majority of facebook applications.

Facebook simply wouldn’t provide the functionality to post a fun comment if it wasn’t allowed, look at Social Interview for example which has 4 million monthly active users! If people don’t want to partake in the app they can do one of many things: they can block an application from their own profile on Facebook, delete the posts the same as you would a comment from a friend, or opt out of this application if they so wish. Our search for Ireland’s social networking king and queen really is only meant to be a bit of fun for people and not mean to be taken too seriously. As mentioned above, people can request to opt out if they are nominated and don’t wish to be involved or can just block the app itself.

I thought I’d put some order on them & see what’s going on at home and abroad that might be worth checking out.

FOWD Tour

Tagline: We’re hitting four UK cities in September 2009 to bring you FREE web design tutorials, an afternoon of great talks from some of the UK’s best known web designers and speed networking. Don’t miss out.

Location: Belfast (also Bristol, Glasgow and Leeds). When: 02 Sept. Cost: £59. [see you there!]

dconstruct

Tagline: dConstruct 09 brings together leading thinkers from the fields of ubiquitous computing, interface design, gaming and mobile to explore the challenges of designing for tomorrow.

Location: Brighton, UK. When: 04 Sept. Cost: £115.

idea 2009

Tagline: IDEA2009 brings together the world’s foremost thinkers and practitioners: sharing the big ideas that inspire, along with practical solutions for the ways people’s lives and systems are converging to affect society.

Location: Toronto. When: 15-16 September. Cost: $250 – $550.

FOWA London

Tagline: We have a fantastic line up from some of the industry’s leading professionals. You’ll be hearing from: Mozilla, Twitter, TechCrunch, Facebook, digg, Merb, jQuery, 280North, Virgin and more.

Location: London. When: 30 Sept – 02 Oct. Cost: £385.25 – £569.25.

Adobe Max

Tagline: We are in a software revolution fueled by social computing, client and cloud, and the spread of rich media across screens and devices. For four unforgettable days this October, MAX 2009 will bring together thousands of designers, developers, and decision-makers to shape the future. Join us.

Location: Los Angeles. When: 04 Oct – 07 Oct. Cost: $100 – $1,795.

There’s a range of events being organised as part of Design Week around Ireland in November, including Offset 2009 – a full blog post about that is in the works but do check out the Design Week site for info.

The blurb goes like this:

“We will turn Dublin’s tallest building into a giant public canvas—and we want you to play with it. Our simple tools allow you to animate your thoughts and broadcast them on the city skyline.”

Today’s article in the Irish Indo says that 330 windows combined with some sophisticated LED lighting will turn Liberty Hall into a huge, electronic canvas as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival which runs from September 24th to October 11th.

Sounds wicked, and I’m loving the really cute n sexy website. Full info will be available on August 24th according to the www.daft.ie/playhouse page. In the meantime you can keep tabs on developments via Twitter, Facebook, Vimeo and Flickr.

Eurovision mapping

On Saturday night during the Eurovision I was singing the praises of the lovely work my friend Kev did creating a visualisation of the 2008 Eurovision voting. As luck would have it, he’s posted it on his website for all to play with.

Here’s the lovely Flash interactive, his portfolio & his blog from his ongoing year at Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design in Copenhagen.