Slashdot Mirror
As Controversy Swirls, Facebook Dials Down the Swagger On Its Developer Conference (theverge.com)
In the recent years, Facebook has used its developer conference -- F8 -- as an opportunity to showcase the most bleeding technologies: Type with your brain. 'Hear' with your skin. And in the event of an emergency, a helicopter to the rescue with some free internet access. But that was a different time. In the recent months, the company has faced backlash for Cambridge Analytica scandal, and reportedly delayed plans to launch a Amazon Echo-like speaker. But perhaps the biggest surprise for developers came this month when Facebook deprecated APIs to limit the amount of data developers had access to -- forcing many to seriously rethink their business model as their existence revolved around access to users' data. So how does the company plan to cherish its developer ecosystem at the two-day long F8 conference starting tomorrow? The Verge reports: The bruising series of events leading up to F8 is expected to produce a more muted affair than in previous years. (Much of the event had to be reworked in recent weeks after the company began shutting down APIs, people familiar with the matter told The Verge.) On one hand, the event, which takes places Tuesday and Wednesday in San Jose, is still very much on. Facebook says it's the biggest F8 ever, with more than 50 sessions available to a record crowd of 5,000 attendees. But the company acknowledges that the event comes at a time when Facebook is radically rethinking its relationship with those developers.
[...] It remains to be see whether the company will get a warm reception from partners who have been blindsided by the changes. Justin Krause runs a startup named Pod that builds a smart calendar app for iOS. Until this month, the app integrated with Facebook to put events from the social app onto your calendar. Then, in the wake of this month's Congressional hearings, Facebook revoked Pod's access to the calendar API without warning. "They didn't announce that they were revoking this data or send errors -- they just started sending empty lists, silently," Krause said. [...] In any case, it promises to be Facebook's strangest developer conference ever -- it's the only one to be held in the midst of a massive API shutdown.
[...] It remains to be see whether the company will get a warm reception from partners who have been blindsided by the changes. Justin Krause runs a startup named Pod that builds a smart calendar app for iOS. Until this month, the app integrated with Facebook to put events from the social app onto your calendar. Then, in the wake of this month's Congressional hearings, Facebook revoked Pod's access to the calendar API without warning. "They didn't announce that they were revoking this data or send errors -- they just started sending empty lists, silently," Krause said. [...] In any case, it promises to be Facebook's strangest developer conference ever -- it's the only one to be held in the midst of a massive API shutdown.
Awww. Sounds like nothing of value is being lost.
Justin Krause runs a startup named Pod that builds a smart calendar app for iOS.
Doesn’t sound that smart if it requires Facebook to work.
Lots of people in this field, especially in the SV startup scene, may not have had experience with Dotcom Bubble 1.0. However, I believe we're finally starting to see signs of the peak for Bubble 2.0. During 1.0, it was all about getting big quickly, launch parties, flashy advertising and IPOs. 2.0 seems to be all about disruption and dominating the market segment you're in without having to sell yourself to the public. This explains the relentless drive to build businesses on top of other companies' APIs. Problem is, when that company stops making the data you rely on available for free (or cheap,) the party's over and your business model is toast. Could you imagine what would happen if Google pulled access to its maps API or started charging?
Bubble 2.0 is probably going to hang in there a lot longer than 1.0. The Cloud means startups don't have to raise millions more to build data centers, and there's still the allure of getting access to billions more users' data in one way or another so startups will be able to get VC money for a while. Since we're not selling pets.com stock to individual investors there probably won't be a dotcom crash. But I think the same things will happen with tech that came out of this bubble...we'll pick up the really useful stuff and continue using it in a less frenetic manner.
If you think there is any real kind of reform happening at Facebook then you are the kind of fool they want on their platform. The reality is that they are pulling back and creating the appearance that they are changing. Why the sham? Simple, they are trying to stem the exodus of US users not because they care about a measly 200M users but because that could create a vacuum for a new platform. That new platform could them go on to displace them globally.
Expect the level data access to be restored to it's former glory in a year or so. Naturally, they may start charging by the number of profiles you request to prevent us "little people" from using it.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.