pr Archive

Earlier this week Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of a new fund for Facebook application developers called fbFund. He said they will give grants to exciting ideas which could provide great opportunities to Facebook application developers. I generally think of a grant as something that doesn’t need to be repaid (as a loan would), but from what I understand they will be looking for some equity should the idea move forward but no initial equity as with a typical VC deal. I sure hope the giddy developer’s do the research and seek counsel before deciding if it’s a good idea. As I said, I have not yet done the research to provide any analysis.

What I found interesting is that Mark basically said you could "email in your ideas". Who uses email to apply for something? How would Facebook keep track of who is first, route the ideas, organize them, etc. I thought to myself. It seems I wasn’t alone in this thinking. Ashkan Karbasfrooshan from Mojo Supreme has put together an excellent analysis of the use of email in this case.

He contacted Facebook and received a reply that included the following (my emphasis):

During this process, however, it has become clear that we will receive proposals which contain similar or even identical ideas. As a result, and in order to protect other developers and us from claims that we or anyone else copied material without the creator’s permission, unless we agree otherwise in writing, we can’t promise that any materials or information you submit here will be kept confidential, or specifically that we or others might not develop similar or identical products or services. Accordingly, we ask that you not submit any materials or information you consider to be confidential or proprietary to this e-mail address.

This said, if you would like us to delete any materials you have just sent us, please send us an e-mail within 48 hours instructing us to do so with an email subject “DELETE”, and we will delete those materials without review by anyone here. If we do not receive instructions to delete your materials within 48 hours, we will rely on that fact as indicating that you wish us to review your materials, with the understanding that we accept no obligations (whether of confidentiality, payment or otherwise) with respect to any materials, information or
ideas included in your submission.

Ashkan wonders if this type of behavior will open Facebook to more litigation down the road. I wonder what type of PR mess this could create and whether there will be a developer backlash should an idea go live from Facebook direct and an app developer claims it was his or her idea. So basically Facebook will now have thousands of ideas submitted to them. What will they do with these ideas? What protections do app developers have in this process?

PR Newswire announced yesterday that they have partnered with Technorati to add a Technorati button to all press releases posted on the PR Newswire site. This opens thousands of companies to a new method of tracking who is "talking" about this company and its new releases.

David L. Sifry, founder and CEO of Technorati said, "Often, the kernel of any robust conversation on the Live Web is a press release in which something significant or interesting is announced. By using the new Technorati button on PR Newswire, folks can instantly see both immediate reaction to announcements and the accelerating conversation, all in real time."

The key for this is to make sure that the Technorati system continues to strive for the best possible results. At a basic level, we trust Google and the results it provides. We need to get to a place where we trust Technorati the same way. Check out our other coverage of Technorati.

I decided to take today and use it as a public relations day for the Fat-Off. Thanks to Scott, I sent about 20 PR e-mails to other weight loss community sites to see if they would either participate or provide some coverage for the Fat-Off. And I contacted PRWeb about creating a press release. They want $299 to create the release which frankly I would rather not spend right now. So I may have a friend work on the press relase. Let me know if you have any other ideas for getting the word out about the Fat-Off.

I have the review for RunFatBoy about 85% complete but decided to do some exciting PHP code for the evening. I figure I have enough weight to lose that RFB can hold for another day :)

You will see some changes and you won’t see other changes I made. But I assure you that all of them will help enhance your experience in using CenterNetworks. Some of the changes include:

• Addition of a Get Involved bar at the top of all content pages – this should help with the viral ability of the site
• New style for comments – still working this out a bit
• Faster page rendering
• Other misc tweaks which I cannot share since we are on a code orange alert level

We will be applying to be a 9rules site on Wednesday, I wonder if they will accept us.