Well I am very excited to let everyone know that we are are launching our newest application with Dank Apps called BE SANTA. This is something that I am very excited about and we are def testing the Facebook landscape a little bit with your Virtual and Real goods ideas. Jason Beckerman and the entire Dank Apps team has worked really hard on this now it is up to the users. I did a little video blog to talk about the launch that day. As you can see my family and I have a lot of fun and my brother and sister wanted to get in on the action. 

Wednesday evening I had the opportunity to attended Facebook Developer Garage in NYC with Jason Beckerman and Mike Radparvar. As part of a global effort to link Facebook-minded business professionals with developers, the event was held at Daylife.com’s new headquarters. A huge thank you goes out to DayLife for providing a great venue for the event. If you would like to keep track of future Facebook Developer Garage events, and you are in the tri-state area, check out the Facebook Developer Garage Group.

Overall, we enjoyed the Garage as it did provide for some new insight into the future of the Facebook platform, some libations and plenty of my favorite food—pizza. However, it was apparent that not everyone present was as committed to creative, quality content for Facebook as the Carrot Crew is. I can always expect to get a hearty chuckle out of these events, watching business slicksters in expensive suits beg and plead with young programmers, sporting a Home Star Runner T-shirt and ripped jeans, to get rich quick in the “Facebook Craze.” Still, there was a decent amount of new information available and always opportunity to connect with like-minded Facebook professionals.

I, along with Jason and Phil from Dank Apps, presented the LOTTO to the Garage and it was well received with congratulations and constructive comments. And, yes, we did give a small plug for any designers or developers interested in working for a cutting-edge, fun company, to join the Carrot Crew or Dank Apps. After the presentation, we grabbed a few Brooklyn Brews with a great crowd or developers, designers, professionals and friends alike.

First off, I want to send out a huge hello to all the great people I had the opportunity to meet in San Jose last week at Graphing Social Patterns: The Business & Technology of Facebook, is a conference designed for both technical developers and business professionals to better understand the current landscape of Facebook and discuss best practices in utilizing and distributing Facebook applications. The LOTTO, along with ten other applications, was presented at the conference and judged accordingly. Our presentation was strong and sparked intrigue and laughter as we love keeping these conferences light-hearted. And although we did not win the highest honors at the conference, our application received the most installs, so I would like to think we were the “peoples’ champ.” Rodney Rumford for Facereviews.com liked it so much that he interviewed us for his blog. 

Extra! Extra! Read all about one of my good friends and CEO of Teach The People & Dank Apps Jason Beckerman was featured at Wired Magazine online. I can not begin to describe my excitement in having my favorite magazine, one that I greatly respect and continuously reread every month, feature a client and friend that is near and dear to the Carrot. I am so proud of Jason and happy that my company and myself are working with him. Be sure to check out TTP in the upcoming months, and let us know what you think of the design

Kermit the Frog once said, “It ain’t easy being green!” My company and I completely disagree, and that’s why we are excited to introduce the first Application released by Dank Apps Inc—LOTTO. Now Facebook users can win weekly jackpots with this weekly contest application. As Lotto grows, so do the jackpots. Best of all, users get up to seven tickets and roll the dice of luck without paying a cent.

Within three weeks of launching, LOTTO already has over 80,000 users and is ranked as one of the most recently active Facebook applications. Its instant and growing popularity has warranted us to start work on a 2.0 version of it, where we will be utilizing more ‘Word of Mouse’ functions. We will have new and improved updates soon, but for now check out the logo and method of design below.