MeFi Projects

Between April of 2000 and July of 2021, the Quarantine Happy Hour Facebook group hosted a livestreamed concert of mostly roots/acoustic/americana/bluegrass/folk music nearly every single night. Hundreds of artists gave concerts, and around 20,000 people joined the group. Facebook's interface for finding and watching the concerts after they were over is terrible, so I built a searchable and (hopefully) easier to use page linking to all of them. [more inside]
posted by hades on Jul 14, 2021 - 1 comment

I've begun a group on Facebook intended to be a respite from the horrible news of the coronavirus and instead to celebrate the moments or acts of grace and beauty that has arisen as a result of it. This may be singing from the balconies of Italy, art, people helping others, swans and dolphins in the canals of Venice, or the like. [more inside]
posted by QuakerMel on Mar 20, 2020 - 0 comments

Monolog is an interactive diary bot that prompts you with interesting questions, which it chooses based on the topics you write about. [more inside]
posted by TheMadStork on Dec 23, 2016 - 6 comments

A Facebook project in which I explore my home state through photos, artifacts, postcards, and other memorabilia, all in a probably futile attempt to understand what it means to be Minnesotan.
posted by maxsparber on Feb 22, 2016 - 0 comments

Building on the groundbreaking research of Virginia Heffernan, I have finally, after months of tireless research, completed my exhaustive taxonomy of Facebook birthday wishes. Published in the "Daily Shouts" section of the academic Journal of Upper East Side Sociology (aka "The New Yorker").
posted by ericbop on Jan 7, 2016 - 2 comments

I have accidentally created a rather lively Facebook group about Omaha history. Daily posts about forgotten byways in the city by the Missouri, such as our restaurant that featured a live (and unhappy) porpoise that splashed diners, our movie theater that was basically a giant black light poster, and our various terrible mayors.
posted by maxsparber on Dec 22, 2015 - 2 comments

About 2 years ago I moved to a new city and suddenly faced clubbing ignorance. It turns out finding club nights (especially smaller ones) is pretty hard. Almost every night has a corresponding Facebook event, but to find it you have to be friends with the right people. I wrote some scripts which grabbed events off the Facebook API, worked out if they were club nights (you'd be surprised how many open events people make) and grouped them by city . This has evolved over the last 2 years (in short bursts of enthusiasm) into Event Deck, a website and Android app. [more inside]
posted by leo_r on Oct 28, 2014 - 1 comment

Surprised that Facebook has been experimenting on you, deliberately tampering with your emotions? Don't be. Our reliance on digital information in all aspects of our life -- from shopping, to reading the news, to interacting with our friends -- is having an unexpected consequence: we are increasingly dependent on information that's being manipulated by parties who are trying to get you to act against your own self-interest. Virtual Unreality is a book about how the digital revolution is blurring the distinction between what's true from what's fictional, what's genuine from what's fake, what's human from what's algorithmic -- what's real and what's virtual. [more inside]
posted by cgs06 on Jun 30, 2014 - 5 comments

Hi! I've made a Facebook Page that is meant to become a community space where folks can present and discuss issues in environmentalism and conservation. It's brand new, and I'm trying to build a nucleus of informed, friendly, intelligent (not to mention attractive and charming) folks who find the subject interesting and might want to post and comment on the topic. [more inside]
posted by Scientist on Jan 22, 2013 - 3 comments

My interviewing website, called Conversus, is a place where people can tell any story they want. My experience interviewing includes as a radio, television, print reporter and as well as a freelance videographer and writer, and through my work as a public affairs officer. Because I have talked to hundreds of people during my career (maybe thousands), I have a good sense for what motivates people to share, namely asking a simple question and then, listening. I have had many five minute conversations with strangers who's stories could've been made into indie film sagas, only to have them disappear never to be seen again. I think these interactions are the stuff that fuel us and give us empathy for each other. [more inside]
posted by CollectiveMind on Oct 1, 2012 - 2 comments

Have you ever wondered what John Dean thinks about Obama's healthcare plan and the recent Supreme Court ruling? What about a legal scholar's take on compelling pharmacists to provide morning after drugs against the religious objections of pharmacists? Or the legal perspective on using Adderall to get ahead in high school? Or has an employer ever asked you for your Facebook password during a job interview? This online legal analysis and commentary publication provides insight into the legal issues and controversies we face in our modern lives.
posted by twiggy32 on Jun 29, 2012 - 1 comment

A public art project where people who use Facebook anonymously share their experiences of feeling alone. [more inside]
posted by willt on Jun 24, 2012 - 5 comments

A web/interactive/music video by Yung Jake. [more inside]
posted by beanstshirt on Mar 15, 2012 - 0 comments

Jotunheim is an iPhone app that lets you post to Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, and mlkshk. One at a time or all at once. So, you can keep your people up-to-date, even if they're not all on the same social network. [more inside]
posted by ignignokt on Dec 1, 2011 - 1 comment

ThinkUp is a powerful, free, open source PHP/MySQL app that you install on your web server to collect and store all of your activity on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Google+. It can analyze your activity, lets you search for your data (even past Twitter's search limits!) and is constantly being extended with new features and capabilities by a very active, diverse developer community. [more inside]
posted by anildash on Nov 16, 2011 - 8 comments

This paper explores how the technological design of Facebook homogenizes identity and limits personal representation. I look at how that homogenization transforms individuals into instruments of capital, and enforces digital gates that segregate users along racial boundaries. Using a software studies methodology that considers the design of the underlying software system, I examine how the use of finite lists and links for personal details limits self-description. In what ways the system controls one’s visual presentation of self identity is analyzed in terms of its relation to the new digital economy. I also explore the creative ways that users resist the limitations Facebook imposes, as well as theorize how technological changes to the system could relax its homogenizing and limiting effects.
posted by whitmix on Sep 25, 2011 - 1 comment

An iPhone app for browsing your Facebook friends and making and managing friend lists for use as privacy filters. [more inside]
posted by acb on Jun 1, 2011 - 1 comment

You provide the linkbait, I provide the shame. I designed this site as an easy way for people to participate in April Fools' Day, without having to do much work on their own. It works best if you have a Facebook account, but you could use it via Twitter, your site/blog... basically anywhere you can share a link online. [more inside]
posted by avoision on Mar 31, 2011 - 4 comments

Generates random band names and albums w/covers. Integration with Facebook and Google Image Search. (Possibly NSFW) [more inside]
posted by BoatMeme on Feb 1, 2011 - 0 comments

Worked on this for one of my clients but think it's one of the cooler things I've done for them. Scans your Facebook friends to determine which of your friends lived or grew up in a state that borders the Gulf of Mexico, with the aim of dramatizing the human impact of the oil spill and rallying support for the region.
posted by awesomebrad on Aug 4, 2010 - 0 comments

It seemed to me that I didn't have a place to go to find out what Facebook games didn't suck, and then when I looked around I couldn't find one. So I built a site to do just that. It's been up for a couple of weeks now, but I'm just getting to the point where I have enough content not to look entirely pathetic. I'd love to know what y'all think - review requests are welcome, too! [more inside]
posted by restless_nomad on May 20, 2010 - 4 comments