First-Ever Google Devfest In Singapore Focuses On Building Social Applications For The Web

Developers Introduced to OpenSocial, Google App Engine, and other Google APIs to Create Social Networking Applications for eXo Platform, Friendster, hi5 and iGoogle Platforms

SINGAPORE and KUALA LUMPUR, October 28, 2008 – Google, eXo Platform, Friendster, Globant and hi5 today welcomed over 400 Singaporean and Malaysian developers for the first-ever Google DevFest in Singapore. This year’s DevFest is a one-day technical workshop for developers to learn how to create OpenSocial™ applications for eXo Platform, Friendster, hi5 and iGoogle platforms. Co-organized by the developer-centric community of e27, DevFest is being held at the Singapore Management University and registration numbers quickly exceeded venue capacity weeks in advance reflecting the overwhelming interest by developers to build web applications on social networking platforms.

Social networking is a growing trend for Internet users in Singapore, bringing many business opportunities for social networking sites and developers. According to Hitwise, social networking sites represented 10.2% of all Internet visits by Singapore users in March 2008. This is ahead of both Australian and US usage, with 8.38% and 9.4% share of visits respectively. At the same time, the high engagement of Singaporean users with social networking sites was also demonstrated by a relatively long average session duration up to 20 mins 52 seconds which is significantly higher than the overall average of 12 mins 32 seconds.

"It's an incredibly exciting time to be a web developer in Singapore and Malaysia, with so many powerful APIs, open distribution platforms, and development tools becoming available for easy and often free use," said Patrick Chanezon, Developer Advocate, Google. “Google DevFest will help shape the future of the social web for 2.7 million Internet users in Singapore and 15 million Internet users in Malaysia by enabling web developers to collaborate and learn about faster and better paths to create the next wave of social networking applications that work across all OpenSocial-enabled websites.”

At Google DevFest, developers will get practical advice for building web applications from Google engineers and technical tips for working with social networking platforms from eXo Platform, Friendster, Globant and hi5. Sessions at the event will cover:  

• OpenSocial: The web is better when it’s social, built through a set of common APIs. This session shows developers how to use the latest OpenSocial APIs, frameworks and gadgets to open up interesting ways to interact and be social with people through web applications.
• Maps & Geo: Since the introduction of the Google Maps™ API in 2005, geospatial and map applications have been one of the most interesting developments on the web. This session focuses on the many aspects of geospatial applications, from KML (a file format used to display geographic data) to the Google Maps API.
• App Engine: Developers want to build and scale applications, not worry about system administration and maintenance. This session explains how developers can use Google App Engine™ to build web applications on top of Google’s infrastructure.
• Social Networking Platforms: Hundreds of millions of Internet users benefit from the OpenSocial platform as new features appear on their favorite social networks. This session shows how eXo Platform, Friendster, Globant and hi5 make OpenSocial applications available to their users.

More information about Google DevFest is available at http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/.

OpenSocial Gadget Contest: Developers Compete to Build Hot Social Networking Applications
To support the developer community and encourage innovation on the OpenSocial platform, Google is organizing an OpenSocial Gadget Contest for local developers to use their coding skills and creativity to build OpenSocial applications.

Google will award 4 prizes in Singapore and 4 prizes in Malaysia to local developers whose applications are picked by a panel of judges from Google, eXo Platform, Friendster, Globant and hi5. The top winner in each country will receive a Nintendo Wii and the rest of the winners will get an Apple iPod Touch. More importantly to the developers, the winning OpenSocial applications will be promoted to drive widespread user adoption on OpenSocial partner websites to potentially reach hundreds of millions of Internet users worldwide.

Developers can register and submit their OpenSocial applications at http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/contest  from November 15, 2008 to January 10, 2009. Entries are limited to three per person and will be evaluated on:

• Creativity and user appeal
• Internationalization (Message Bundles)
• Use of other Google APIs
• Use of App Engine for storing user data and hosting files

Winners will be notified by January 26, 2009 and the contest results will be announced by February 6, 2009.
Additional information about the OpenSocial Gadget Contest can be found at http://code.google.com/events/apacdevfest/contest.

About OpenSocial
OpenSocial addresses an emerging problem for developers who are eagerly building applications people can enjoy with their friends. Before OpenSocial, if a developer built a "favorite photos" application to work on one social network, it would have to be built all over again to work on another site. OpenSocial tackles this problem at its technology roots, providing common "plumbing" that lets social applications run on many different websites without requiring duplicate work from either developers or the websites.
The result is a vast distribution platform for social applications, whether they are for sharing photos or playing games or arranging real-world meetings or any number of other activities – everything is more fun, interesting, and useful when users can involve their friends and contacts.
Global members of the OpenSocial community include Engage.com, Friendster, iGoogle, hi5, Hyves, imeem, LinkedIn, MySpace, Ning, Oracle, orkut, Plaxo, Salesforce.com, SixApart, Viadeo, XING, Yahoo! and others. Asia Pacific members include: in China - 51.com, 51wan.com, CityIN.com, Douban.com, Hainei.com, MySpace.cn, Tianji.com, Tianya.cn, Xiaonei.com, YiQi.com; in Japan - Goo, Mixi, OpenPNE; in Korea - Daum.net, idTail, Paran.com. OpenSocial now offers developers the potential to connect with more than 500 million people worldwide.

About Google Inc.
Google’s innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Founded in 1998 by Stanford Ph.D. students Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google today is a top web property in all major global markets. Google’s targeted advertising program provides businesses of all sizes with measurable results, while enhancing the overall web experience for users. Google is headquartered in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. For more information, please visit www.google.com.sg or www.google.com.my.   

About Globant
Globant is the Latin American leader in software product development, R&D, and maintenance outsourcing. Globant utilizes a rational blend of Open Source combined with proprietary software, which brings flexibility, mitigates risk and further reduces costs. Globant’s proprietary SmartStaffing Technology™ yields high performance teams that enable companies to quickly develop their software products and gain an edge in the competitive landscape with the lowest total cost. Globant is a privately held, privately funded company headquartered in Buenos Aires, Argentina with offices in Tandil, Córdoba and La Plata in Argentina, Palo Alto, Austin and Boston in the United States, Mexico City, Bogota, Santiago de Chile and London. For more information, visit www.globant.com.