New Facebook course at Stanford University

by on September 12, 2007

Only in Silicon Valley?

You can learn how to build Facebook Applications at Stanford University.

Personally, based on how many startups, both here and in Seattle, have told me that they are building Facebook apps, I think this is a great idea.

I’ll add more after I interview the professor (planning on doing that in October after our baby is born).

  • Stanford does tend to offer some "out there" programming courses from time to time. When I was there I took a class in what was essentially NeXT 0.8alpha application development.

    When you interview the professor, ask him or her:

    Where is the course for building *Web* applications, based on modern open standards, like HTML, CSS, Javascript, microformats, OpenID etc.?
  • Chris L
    I have been seeing a lot of partnership opportunities for Facebook developers on Craig's List. They are posted by people who have no business plan or programming skills. I hope we don't see lives get ruined.
  • just to clarify: altho it is a "Facebook class", the concepts we're aiming to present on user engagement & metrics are equally applicable to product managers, product marketers, & app developers working on traditional websites & applications, as much as Facebook.

    the reason we chose Facebook as our "lab" however, was based on the ability to get something out there very quickly & to see results with users right away.

    note we'll also be using Google Analytics throughout the course to collect & measure user engagement metrics & apply those to how features are designed, developed, & marketed via the Facebook Apps the students create.

    it will be a journey, but it should be a fun one!

    - dave mc
  • What a great concept. As the world becomes more and more globalized and with the growth of the internet proving a viable business medium, I'm sure we can expect to see more of this sort thing in the near future.

    Now if they'd only launch a university course on how to get a good Google PR :_)

    cyberst0rm
    http://cyberst0rm.blogspot.com
  • I think it is funny. I should check out the ones in Seattle.
  • And we in europe wonder why Silicon valley is so much in the forefront of web and information technology development....
  • Hey Robert,

    I'm Dan, the head course assistant for the class. Following up on Dave's comment, we've had two great classes so far and in the spirit of moving quickly, we're asking our students to launch the first versions of their apps in two weeks.

    We'll post the links to all of our students' apps as they launch, so stay tuned!


    Dan Ackerman Greenberg

    http://www.ackermangreenberg.com
  • I just interviewed Dan and he shared some links to some of the student apps that are already online.

    http://www.hatchthat.com/dan-ackerman-greenberg/
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