Postcards from Developer Garages

As Facebook continues to expand internationally, our Facebook Developer Garage program does as well. More than half of our Garages, which serve as a forum to share ideas with local developers, have been international and the program is growing fast. In the last year, we’ve seen over 55 Garages in over 35 unique locations.

Since Facebook Platform launched in 2007, more than 17,000 developers have attended Facebook Developer Garages worldwide, and we hope to see even more of you in the future. We’ve reached developers from Tokyo to Toronto, as well as in our hometown of Palo Alto. Most recently Facebook developers met in Paris during the Le Web conference, as well as in Accra, Ghana and Kampala, Uganda.

Last week, Sasha Rush, one of Facebook's lead Platform Engineers, kicked off the first Facebook Developer Garage in West Africa in the country of Ghana. He spoke to over 85 developers about building on Facebook Platform.

Last Tuesday, Dave Morin, Senior Platform Product Manager, and Nick Bushak, an intern on the Platform team, lead a special-edition Developer Garage at the Le Web Conference in Paris. Our French affiliates joined us, with sessions on Facebook Connect, the games space on Facebook, and other technical topics.

To wrap up 2008, Charlie Cheever, Platform Engineering Manager, finished our African tour at the Facebook Developer Garage Uganda; teaching over 100 developers to use their coding skills to build Facebook applications as well as provide users with engaging and meaningful experiences.

If you’d like to learn more about the Facebook Developer Garage program, check out the Developer Wiki to find out where the next Garage is taking place, or how to host one yourself. We’ll be adding much more information in the new year.

We hope to see you at a Facebook Developer Garage in 2009!

*Special thanks to Samasource, Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST), and AppAfrica for hosting our African Garages.