I’m not really graded, so this means I can be a bit pai kia and not blog on a specific app that was presented. Unfortunately, I’m not 14 years old.

To be honest, I didn’t do anything for the Facebook Application Seminar project, that’s why I decided to do some community service and take photos instead. The project discussions were done over the weekend and I was packed with all the random things to do, like visiting the in-laws, visiting my parents, attending KHCO‘s 35th Anniversary dinner and of course spending time with my wife who’s almost about to twist my ears off for reaching home past midnight this morning. What’s with women and being alone at home? 😛

Dr. Ben Leong wrapping up the class.

I’m very impressed by all the presentations yesterday. To be honest, they are way better than about 90% of the business presentations I’ve seen. BTW, what’s that tool that some teams were using? It’s like a huge template that’s sliding around. It’s not PowerPoint – it looks web based. Somebody please enlighten me.

Basically as many have observed, the most popular apps might not be the prettiest or the easiest. There’s many factors around which an app can be successful. It is important that CS3216 students see beyond their academic scope and realize that the world is not so simple. Jonathan’s presentation made this point even more obvious.

Jonathan Low on scams.

Unfortunately for the most of us who believe in doing good, doing business is not really the same. It’s quite a tough balance of being God and Satan. Why? I think because humans are selfish in one way or another – it’s our natural survival instinct!

Just to cite an example. Google is well known for it’s motto “Don’t be Evil“. However AdWords survived quite a while with click fraud until they got sued. It’s not entirely their fault – they didn’t do it deliberately – but they knew it was happening and was making them money, so they didn’t really stop the fraudsters; not at least until they got their ass under fire.

Cedric on prediction markets.

The second part that got me thinking was the presentation on Prediction Markets. Facebook has over 300 million users. Although this is not larger than the population of China or India, it is certainly a substantial population where a good sampling of information can be obtained. If there’s a great app to build, it would be one that analyzes social behavior for market intelligence. Food for thought.