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- Tune in to the ABC News/Facebook Debates, Tonight 7pm/6c on ABC
  by Ezra Callahan on Saturday, January 5, 2008 at 1:18am
  Following the excitement of the Iowa Caucuses, all eyes are now on New Hampshire, which will host the nation's first primary on Tuesday.
  
  Tonight, all of the major contenders from both parties will be in the Granite State to take part in the New Hampshire Debates, presented by Facebook, ABC News and WMUR.
  
  The Republican candidates will square off at 7pm/6c, followed by the Democratic candidates about 90 minutes later. Charles Gibson will moderate both debates.
  ...
  You can get involved before, during and after the debates in Facebook's US Politics application, where you can:
  Give live feedback about the debates and the candidates
  Take part in Debate Groups about the election's hottest topics
  See behind-the-scenes postings from ABC News reporters at the debates
  Add your support to your favorite candidates
  Register to vote
  And more...
  So watch the debates tonight on ABC and continue the debate on Facebook through November.
  
  Ezra Callahan has been working on Facebook's political features since 2006.
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- What Sweet Madness Has Seized Me?
  by Ezra Callahan on Thursday, April 5, 2007 at 9:15am
  March Madness has come and gone, but the craziness will continue for Jacob Dodson. Jacob claimed the top spot in Facebook's second annual College Basketball Tournament Pool, earning 177 points in getting 59 of the 63 games correct. Check out the final standings to see who claimed the rest of the $37,500 prize package.
  
  Not surprisingly, the University of Florida college network had the highest average score of all networks with 127.2 points. Also fittingly, the members of the Gainesville, FL regional network (122.0) led the way among regional... networks, and the students of Oak Hall High School(124.1) in Gainesville averaged the highest among high school networks. Congratulations also go to the fine people of Wells Fargo (98.3), who topped all work networks. Oh, and of course to the Florida Gators for claiming their second straight national championship.
  
  A huge thanks to everyone on Facebook who took part. Over 1.5 million people submitted brackets, making the Facebook pool one of the largest. Big thanks also to Intersport for providing us with video throughout the tournament, and to all our sponsors for helping foot the bill for all those prizes.
  
  Ezra Callahan, the product manager for the tournament pool, finished at a disgraceful 1,069,275th place.
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- Long Overdue: Photo Sorting
  by Ezra Callahan on Wednesday, March 14, 2007 at 3:16pm
  We don't keep exacts stats for this sort of thing, but approximately a bajillion people have asked us to add the ability to sort photos within a photo album. It's a pretty sensible request – it sucks trying to get photos in a specific order on Facebook. And probably about once a week, someone around the office would say, "Hey, we should add photo sorting." If they were lucky, they might just get a bunch of people rolling their eyes; unlucky souls would get a gruff reply along the lines of, "Yeah, so build it..."
  
  ooooh, they move...
  
  But then a... brave new engineer named Dan Weatherford started a couple of weeks ago. And he said "This is ridiculous, I'm just going to build this thing." And he did. And it was good.
  
  So, we're proud to announce (with our tail between our legs) that Facebook now has photo sorting. Click "Organize Photos" when viewing or editing any album, and check it out. And if you happen to meet him, buy Dan a beer (once he turns 21 in 2008).
  
  Ezra Callahan is a senior product manager who had nothing to do with this feature, but is writing because Dan is too modest to take credit for this.
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- Not that those skinny-dipping pictures weren’t fun, but…
  by Ezra Callahan on Tuesday, February 13, 2007 at 6:29pm
  Facebook is all about sharing, be it through your profile, photos, notes, messages, Wall posts, groups, or anything else on the site. We are constantly building and improving tools so people can make sure the stuff they share is seen only by the people they want to see it. It's up to each person to decide which tools they want to use, and decide who can see what.
  
  But there are some types of sharing that we've seen more and more that we can't build tools for and are, in our minds, kind of questionable. We wanted to point some of those out here,... so maybe people will think twice before doing them in the future.
  
  1. Posting phone numbers on group and event Walls
  It's an effective way to give your number to your friends, but it's also a good way to give it to people you don't know.
  
  Lots of people create groups on Facebook about lost mobile phones. In theory, these are an easy and efficient way to recover a lot of lost numbers. In reality, with people posting their phone numbers on the group Wall, these groups provide an unfortunate example of people putting private information into the public realm.
  
  The stuff you post in global groups and events can be visible to anyone on Facebook. If you get invited to a group or event about a lost phone, by all means, give your friend your number, but use a Facebook message.
  
  2. Accepting Random Friend Requests
  
  Friending is a privacy setting on Facebook. That sounds weird, but it's true – when you become friends with someone, you're exposing your whole profile to them.
  
  Now it's not like you've got your social security number in your profile or anything, but it's still a good idea to think about whom you let see your information. We never tell people when you reject a friend request, so you shouldn't feel bad about declining those from people you don't really know.
  
  3. Sharing your password
  
  Imagine the horror of logging in to your account and seeing all your photos removed, your profile info wiped out, your friend list emptied, your messages deleted – all by an angry ex or a hurt friend. It's not a pretty picture.
  
  Telling your significant other or best friend your Facebook password may seem like a safe thing to do, but passwords are meant to be private for a very good reason. Every day, our Customer Support team receives emails from people who get betrayed by someone that knows their Facebook login info. Don't let this happen to you.
  
  4. Posting pictures of people doing illegal stuff
  Sorry, not on Facebook.
  
  We hate to see stories about people getting busted for stuff they post on Facebook. But a little bit of common sense can go a long way when it comes to posting photographic evidence of an infraction or crime.
  
  Under 21? Probably best not to post a picture of that keg stand from last weekend. Not in Amsterdam? Probably better to keep pictures of any illegal substances off Facebook. Not a big fan of wearing clothes? Probably worth leaving out the full frontal shots.
  Ezra Callahan is a senior product manager at Facebook. There are no full frontal shots of him on Facebook.
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- Vote!
  by Ezra Callahan on Monday, November 6, 2006 at 8:14pm
  Uncle Sam may look like he's poking you, but in reality he wants you to vote.
  Nearly 1.5 million people have made their voices heard with our Election 2006 network. Those voices certainly aired a wide range of views: Some took stances on the Iraq War (stay or leave), abortion (pro-choice or pro-life), and gay rights (for or against). The largest lot of you guys support lowering the drinking age from 21 to 18. Check out the Election Pulse; everything from the planet formerly known as Pluto to Stephen Colbert saw their supporters rally behind... them.
  
  Beyond the groups, your voices gave support to hundreds of candidates running for governorships and US Congress seats. A new form of online campaigning is starting to emerge.
  
  But really none of this matters if you don't go out and vote. Election 2006 had one goal in mind: to get you engaged with the election so you'd get into the booth today to cast your ballot.
  
  So make your pokes and wall posts count—get out there and vote!
  
  Update: Now that election day is over, check out our Election Pulse to see how the Facebook results compare to the national ones.
  
  Ezra, the project manager for the Election 2006 network, is busy arguing politics around the office before heading off to the polls.
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- Consider the Vote Rocked
  by Ezra Callahan on Friday, November 17, 2006 at 12:03pm
  Last week saw one of the more historic midterm elections in recent times. The political shift in Washington and state capitals was certainly remarkable. But more importantly, young Americans turned out in droves to make their voices heard this November. According to the University of Maryland's Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, voting among 18 to 29 year olds increased 20 percent on 2002, with 2 million more young adults casting ballots.
  
  Those numbers are exactly what we were hoping to see. The whole drive... behind our Election 2006 project was to get more young Americans into voting booths. But no matter what it was that got you to the polls last Tuesday, it's great to see you flexing your political muscle and sending the government a message that younger Americans matter in the political arena.
  
  Really, we just wanted to run this image one more time.
  We've taken the Election 2006 information out of everyone's profiles, but Facebook will continue to promote civic engagement. We will soon be moving all the remaining politician profiles over to a more permanent home, and we will be creating profiles for all sitting U.S. Representatives, Senators and state governors. Any politician who wants to maintain an ongoing relationship with their younger constituents will be able to on Facebook. And soon we'll let you connect with the candidates for president in 2008 so you have plenty of time to get to know them before casting your vote.
  
  Rock on.
  
  Ezra, the project manager for the Election 2006 network, was a proud voter on election day.
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- The Race Is On
  by Ezra Callahan on Friday, September 15, 2006 at 3:32pm
  The campaign season is in full swing for this November's elections. A lot of you have already added candidates and campaign issues you support to your profile with our Election 2006 feature. This is a great way to make your voice heard and engage with candidates before you cast your vote.
  
  The new Election Pulse page shows how each race is shaping up on Facebook for this November.
  We've set up a new Election Pulse section that has a rundown of all the gubernatorial and congressional races. There you can see state-by-state how each candidate is... polling with the Facebook crowd. Check out the tightest races here.
  
  If you haven't gotten involved yet, click on the Election tab when you edit your profile. You can search for candidates you support by state, party and office, and join campaign issue groups that matter to you. Check out how candidates are filling out their profiles, and drop a message or a wall post on the people you're pulling for this fall.
  
  Remember to register to vote; the Facebook polls won't matter unless you show who you support on election day.
  
  Ezra Callahan works on Election 2006 for Facebook.
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- Facebook the Vote!
  by Ezra Callahan on Thursday, August 31, 2006 at 11:28pm
  Facebook wants you...to make your voice heard this November.
  In the past if you happened upon Hillary Clinton or Arnold Schwarzenegger on Facebook, you'd have good reason to question the authenticity of the profile. If you search for them today, you're going to see something different.
  
  We've now got about 1,600 profiles for candidates running for House and Senate seats and state governorships this November. These profiles are controlled by the politicians, so they can show you a side of themselves that you'd never see in TV spots or even on live... debates.
  
  Add candidates and campaign issues you support by going to the Election tab on the Edit Profile page.
  We wanted to do something to increase the political voice of the people on Facebook, a group that tends to be on the younger side of the electorate and which is often underrepresented in Washington and state capitals. By bringing politicians to Facebook, you can engage with candidates on your turf, in ways that are familiar and meaningful to you. Where better for politicians to meet you guys than on the "series of tubes" where you spend so much time?
  
  The candidates' profiles are visible to all users, and you can easily find the ones in your area by going to the Election tab on the Edit Profile page. You can add candidates you support to the new Election 2006 box in your profile. Also, you can join and create groups dedicated to the campaign issues that affect you most, which will also appear in the Election 2006 box.
  
  Make your voice heard this fall: poke the leaders of the free world.
  
  Ezra Callahan is the product manager for this project.
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