MaRS

Meagan Marks at FacebookCamp Toronto

Last night, over 450 Facebook developers gathered at MaRS to talk about building applications for the social utility. It was the first time that the Facebook people had skipped across the US border for a “developers garage”.

We recently blogged about the MaRS Facebook Group and the fact that Toronto boasts the highest per capita use of this software.

Add to that the fact that Toronto also has one of the top ten largest developer communities, making up more than ten per cent of the total developer community.

No wonder Facebook is paying so much attention to this city: a captive, early-adopting audience and a group of young, eager innovators. Facebook is depending on these users to generate the applications that will make their community stronger and more engaging. Speakers made sure that everyone in the room understood how to design and develop a successful, engaging Facebook application, starting with what users like to see and do, right down to the code and metrics.

They’re still in the early stages of figuring out the business models on these applications, but many companies are using them to simply extend their brand, encourage clicks to their existing website and there are those who have are making money off of the ads integrated into their applications. But I think this is just the start and more innovative models will emerge.

And Toronto might just be the place where it all happens.

More resources:

• Facebookcamp Toronto photos
• Facebook Platform for Developers: a Keynote from Mark Zuckerberg about the applications it enables people to build
• FacebookCamp Toronto website/wiki
• Jordan Christensen live-blogs each of the Facebookcamp sessions
• Wesley Moxam blog in six parts about each of the Facebookcamp sessions
• Craig Saila’s FQL Overview slidedeck