I was invited to sit in on the first ever college class on Facebook: Creating Engaging Web Applications Using Metrics and Learning on Facebook taught by Dr. BJ Fogg from Stanford’s Persuasive Technology Lab and Dave McClure of 500 Hats. With over 100 people registered for the new course, even a new location change didn’t accomodate everyone as students were overflowing from the room.

Although it has been known as the “Facebook Course”, it’s not about programming on Facebook, but rather how to build web applications that are optimized and compelling. It seems that the course will touch upon the psychology of technology as well as the startup experience. Lectures will not focus on the technical aspects like coding and to take the class, you don’t need to know how to code; Fogg mentioned to the class that they won’t see any piece of code up on the screen although the optional labs on a different day will address the technical skills needed for the course.

Students, in multidisclipinary teams of three (ideally a developer, project manager, and marketer), will create two facebook apps — a general app for wide distribution and one that focuses on teaching and learning. The formation of groups will not be facilitated to mirror the startup experience; you get to choose the people with whom you work in startups while at well-established companies, you don’t. At the end of the course, each group will present their apps in an expo format. With people from the industry watching including venture capitalists, McClure joked how it may be the last class they take at Stanford (at which point Fogg commented how that probably shouldn’t go on camera).

Explaining persuasive technology, Fogg pointed out how Facebook has persuaded people to change their habits so that it has become a regular ritual. With many people sporting busy schedules, being able to influence someone to carve out a chunk of their day is powerful.

What followed was a class discussion on what makes Facebook “tick” which generated a few points about:

• voyeurism

• exhibitionism
• self-expression
• lightweight communication
• trust & credibility

The lightweight communication of Facebook doesn’t require people to initiate contact with their friends to ask them how they are doing, but with the news feed and people willing to broadcast their lives through self-expression and exhibitionism, the communication circulates through a trusted network. Self-expression and exhibitionism are also in part fueled by people’s natural voyeuristic tendencies (everyone has probably rubbernecked with a car accident before). Someone pointed out that Facebook’s lightweight communication probably changes Dunbar’s number from 150 to 300-500 (”a theoretical maximum number of individuals with whom a set of people can maintain a social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who each person is and how each person relates socially to every other person”).

When the group was asked how many of them had parents who were on facebook, three people raised their hands including Fogg which led to a discussion about whether Facebook was just for the younger demographic or if it could be popular among the AARP set. One student thought that it probably isn’t so much as the demographic factor, but a psychographic factor (personality, values, attitudes, interests, or lifestyles).

McClure also gave an overview about the five steps to success for a startup, abbreviated AARRR like a pirate:

1. Acquisition
2. Activation
3. Retention
4. Referral
5. Revenue

His talk was similar to the one he gave at Ignite Seattle:

Referrals: Don’t try and do a viral marketing campaign, until your product doesn’t SUCK!
…
Revenue: I have no fucking idea. Figure out how to make money with your product. That’s your job!

Amen to the product not sucking! Many seem to focus on adopting as many users as they can without really focusing on making their product better or fixing things are just broken.

Since the students will be releasing the Facebook applications to the world and incorporating feedback through various avenues, it really bridges learning and practice. Psychology and entrepreneurship is something that has not been covered much in technology-related education, it seems. This new course will most likely prepare students for the real world by giving them actual real world experience.