Freedom Writers

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What is the Freedom Writers Application?

The Freedom Writers application’s goal is to raise $1 million dollars for the Freedom Writers Foundation, which is a nonprofit organization that helps provide funds for teachers to attend the Freedom Writers Institute and to help better the education of others by supporting the Freedom Writers Scholarship.

To accomplish this goal, the application has a system called FreedomBuck$, which are earned by filling out product information surveys from the application’s sponsors. Then, for every 25 FreedomBuck$ earned, $.25 will be donated to the Freedom Writers Foundation.

If you haven’t seen the movie Freedom Writers or read the book The Freedom Writers Diary, the general theme is how a teacher had her students write journal entries about their personal troubles, and ultimately encouraging their continuing education. This application has it’s own journal section where users can express their thoughts on various subjects, which provide interesting reading and evoke the spirit of the book.

Pros

• Journal sections are an interesting read and could be a useful communication tool
• Freedom Prompt section provides topics that help inspire writing

Cons

• The FreedomBuck$ area does not currently work. So there is no way to earn them and therefore no way that donations can be made. However, it appears that this is being worked on and sponsors have been selected.

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Politics In Canada Application

What is the Politics in Canada Application?

If you are Canadian (or at least wish you were) and are interested in current political affairs, then Politics in Canada is the application for you. This application allows you to demonstrate what political party you support. After installing the application, all you have to do is enter your postal code, then select the party that you support, and an icon (representing your political affiliation) will be placed on a map of your province.

I’ve been watching this application for the past week as more people join up. This allowed me to see what areas supported what party. A nice graph is also available to show support throughout the nation and by province. The goal of the application is to raise awareness and to get people involved politically. This is seems to be successfully accomplished by providing links to all the party’s websites.

Pros

• The maps are linked up with Google Maps, allowing you to easily see the whole country
• Everything is broken down conveniently nationally and provincially
• Links to the political party’s official websites

Cons

• Would be nice to see a description of each political party, but it seems that the developer is already on top of this and should be appearing soon.

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College Toolkit Facebook Application

What is the College Toolkit Facebook App?

If I were to design a Facebook Application, it would look something like College Toolkit. Facebook users getting ready to go to college can use College Toolkit to find out more information about the colleges they’re interested in as well as the people who are applying to those schools. The app has a powerful search tool which allows you to narrow schools down by different criteria like size of school, state, and major, just to name a few. You can save schools to what developers call a “personal briefcase area.” After saving a school in your profile, you can see where other Facebook users are planning on attending.

Some of the fun features include college “shout outs” and “trashing.” Basically you can let your Facebook friends know which schools you like, and rag on your friends for picking schools that you don’t like. They also have a College-ology quiz that’s pretty fun.

 College Toolkit App Pros

• Nicely integrated into Facebook
• Great college research school; extensive database of colleges
• Leverages social network by allowing you to see what other Facebook users are planning on attending the school you want to go to
• Keeps the app fun with the shout outs and trash

College Toolkit Cons

• It would be cool if you could create a college application profile with your GPA and SAT scores. You can then compare yourself to other Facebook users who are also wanting to go to the schools you’ve picked

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Flag Collector Facebook Application

What is the Flag Collector Facebook Application?

Flag Collector is an app the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Essentially what you do with Flag Collector is collect country flags from all around the world. There’s a catch though. In order to collect flags, you either have to buy or barter with other Flag Collector users. They way you buy flags is by answering quiz questions on the app’s homepage. After you earn enough points, you can buy a flag. If buying isn’t your thing, you can trade flags with other users. Each flag has a different value, so users will pay only for what it’s worth.

The object of all this buying and trading is to collect every flag. So, in that end, Flag Collector is like a big giant game. I think it’s a unique idea and a great way to use Facebook’s social network. I’d be interested to see what inspired the developers to come up with this app.

Flag Collector Pros

• It’s fun!
• Has every flag in the world.
• Statistics page lets you see who has the most flags and which flags are rare.

Flag Collector Cons

• It would be cool if they added U.S. state flags.
• There are a few bugs, but the developers have done an excellent job fixing them.

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iCare Facebook Application

What is the iCare Facebook Application?

iCare lets you share with your Facebook friends what issues you are passionate about. The application is easy to use. You can select from a list of topics to add to your profile. Topics range from Ron Paul to animal rights. iCare lets you add a topic if your cause isn’t listed. You can click on each topic to see which other people share your beliefs. iCare also creates a tag cloud in the application page to show which topics are the most popular. Your topics show up on the left sidebar.

iCare Pros

• Easy way to see who shares your favorite causes
• Allows you to add your own causes
• Great way to raise awareness for a cause
• Leverages social network by seeing who shares the same causes

iCare Cons

• As of this writing, I had problems with my topics showing up on my profile. I added a few topics, but they don’t appear on my profile page or in the app. Perhaps there’s a delay.
• Doesn’t Facebook already do something like this? You can click on Facebook users’ interests and bring up people who share that same interest. Thus, if someone has save Darfur under interests, you can click on it and bring a list of others who have that interest. I guess the difference here is that makes more uniform topics.

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Magazine Rack Facebook Application

What is the Magazine Rack application?

Magazine rack is similar to many of the bookshelf applications on Facebook, except instead of displaying your books, you display the magazine you’re reading. Now you can find out what kind of magazines your friends are reading and swap magazines to increase your collection.

Magazine Rack Pros

• Discover new magazines
• Share the magazines you read with friends
• Clean simple display
• List other media like CDs and DVDs

Magazine Rack Cons

• I’ve been having problems getting it to work
• Doesn’t list many of the magazines people read, especially if you’re from a country outside the US

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Docs Facebook Application

What is the Docs Facebook Application?

Docs lets you easily share doc files with Facebook users. Your uploaded files are only visible to Facebook users who go to your school. The idea is to share notes and other school work with others. Say you need notes for your philosophy test, just search docs to see if anyone has uploaded notes from your teacher. People are also using it to share essays and research papers. I’d suggest not using docs for plagiarism. It will probably bite you in the butt later on.

Docs Pros

• Over 50,000 docs have been uploaded
• Nice search feature
• Easy to upload

Docs Cons

• Easy for students to plagiarize.
• Some bug problems. Sometime docs won’t open up

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Storyline Facebook Application

What is the Storyline Facebook Application?

Storyline allows you and your Facebook friends to create social stories. You start off writing a paragraph, then your friend adds a paragraph, then another friend adds a paragraph, and so on and so forth. Before you know it, you’ll have a full fledged story that probably has lots of crazy turns in it.

Storyline Pros

•  Create fun stories with your friends
• Takes advantage of Facebook’s social network

Storyline Cons

• Needs a voting system. It would be fun to vote for the best story.

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I Am Green Facebook Application

What is the I Am Green Facebook Application?

I Am Green is a cool way to encourage yourself and your friends to be enviornmentaly friendly. You check off the different ways you are being “green” like riding the bus instead of driving a car. For each environmentally friendly thing you do, you grow a “leaf.” The number of leaves you have is your environmental score. You can see what othes are doing to be green and encourage them to keep on keeping on.

I Am Green Pros

• Lots of different options of being green
• You can create your own
• Leverages Facebook’s social networking to help the environment

I Am Green Cons

•  It takes up a lot of space on your profile page.
• Some of the suggestions of being green are kind of zany

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Answers Facebook Application

What is the Answers Facebook application?

Answers is like tech support for everything. Wanna know where the best beaches in Florida are? Or how to add flash scripts to an HTML page? Maybe you just need some ideas on what to name your rival in the new Pokemon game? Answers can help. Users can post a question on the application that is visible to anyone on facebook. Afterwords, anybody with the application can answer the question. You will be notified when somebody answers your question. You can also search for questions that have already been asked.

Answers Pros

• Easy to use
• Fast responses

Answers Cons

• No moderation

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