Hi all, awhile ago you may remember me griping about the ineffectiveness of Facebook Groups and Pages. They are easy to set up, but they are also quite limited in functionality. These features are not conducive to community-building, engagement or organizing.

Today, I'm releasing the first beta of a new open source Facebook Newsroom CMS application framework.

See the demonstration application site at Facebook:
http://apps.facebook.com/newsdemo

The Facebook Newsroom CMS framework is generic Facebook application code which can be quickly and easily installed, configured and customized for any small organization wanting to establish a sophisticated Web presence within the Facebook community. I hope this framework will drastically reduce the barrier to entry for organizations wishing to leverage Facebook.

Until now, building a Facebook application with broader capabilities required a significant investment of $5 - $15,000 minimum. I think this framework provides the easiest, most customizable and economical solution for small and/or non profit organizations to run an application on Facebook.

What is it?

It's essentially a start up kit for small organizations wishing to build a Facebook application without spending thousands of dollars. It's also a great starting point which can later be enhanced and extended with additional features. With just a few hours, a Web developer with basic PHP skills can launch your application. Hosting can even be obtained free for one year at Joyent (waiting list may exist for free accounts).

Since the framework is open source, it can grow over time as the development community contributes new capabilities. You can download the source at SourceForge or learn more at our Wiki.

Available Features

The default framework provides some basic pages (like a basic Web site or Drupal or Plone installation) e.g. Home page, Newsroom, Photos, Wall, Discussion Forum, Invitations page and About page. It also provides basic content management (CMS) features for customizing the site from within a Web-based management user interface which many users are already familiar with. Pages can be turned on or off or content edited in place.

The news features include integration with your organization's own RSS feed (from a blog or Web site) and the NewsCloud Newsroom which provides real time community-driven news content on a variety of topics. The NewsCloud Newsroom can also be fully customized. If you have a Drupal-based Web site, check out the Drupal NewsCloud module.
http://drupal.org/node/219425

The CMS supports HTML blocks and iFrames to allow you to integrate advertising e.g. Google AdSense, fundraising e.g. ChipIn, photos e.g. Flickr slideshows and more. It's not intended to be a full-featured CMS but to make it easy for organizations to edit the content on their application without changing the source code.

What's next?

Please help spread the word. Forward this email to your colleagues. I need your feedback and feedback from other technologists and NGOs. Beta 2 will arrive soon with additional features based largely on input from the community.

Thanks for your support!

Links:

Demonstration: http://apps.facebook.com/newsdemo/
Announcement: http://blog.newscloud.com/2008/03/open-source-fac.html
SourceForge Code Site: http://sourceforge.net/projects/newsroom
Drupal Newsroom Module: http://drupal.org/node/219425