A month or so ago I did this post on how to create your own Facebook job board. I’m back now with an update on the project and this time have created an open source repository for it over on Codeplex. That means you can go over there, download it, install it, and use it free of charge subject to the terms of the liberal Microsoft Public License.
This app flattens the Facebook object graph so that you can search your friends and your friends’ friends and so on for contact information that may be helpful in winning sales, getting a job or running a staffing or recruiting business.
If you want to use it as a job board, the app makes it so your jobs can auto-publish to your Facebook fan page simply by updating the accompanying database.
You might wonder why I guy who like me is in the business of selling staffing software would release the code of an application for free to everyone including competitors and potential-paying-prospects alike. Aha, well it’s not like I have some big strategy behind this. It just happens to be some cool code that works against a hot social network (Facebook) that I thought I’d share in hopes of sparking conversation about Facebook and what it might mean in 2012, the year it is expected to go public.
What do you think? Is Facebook worth its reportedly $100 billion market cap? How will Facebook impact recruiting in the years to come? Will apps like this that let you suck data out of Facebook and turn it into your own private database provide value? Will they be allowed by Facebook once it becomes more powerful.
Interesting year ahead.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Preposterous to think you could run a staffing company on Facebook. But what do I know – according to this article it saves a women and her baby from a kidnapper and certain death: http://news.yahoo.com/police-utah-mom-son-rescued-facebook-post-001406065.html
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Should mention that the Facebook API constantly changes. The posted download serves more as an example than as a base of a real app that can be built.
http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3396612
“Facebook’s URL level API is a complete disaster. Badly documented, frequently changing for no apparent reason, often breaks in subtle ways for weeks on end and then they ignore you when you bring it up, what documentation they do have is often blatantly wrong, etc.”
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Recruiting on Facebook is WRONG. Morally wrong. Professionally wrong. Apps like this just make it easier to exploit people’s privacy. Sure, sure – Facebook pages are there for all to see….sure, I get it – you can access it, it’s not hidden – but it doesn’t make it right. Stick to the other tools, including networking and leave Facebook to friends and family – not nosy recruiters.
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Not this again…
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