Facebook slates 2011 f8 developer conference for September 22

Facebook just sent out an email invite to this year's f8 developer conference on September 22. The almost-yearly f8 (pronounced "fate") event takes place at the San Francisco Design Center in San Francisco, California. The name derives from the tradition at Facebook of having an eight-hour Hackathon just after the event.

Curiously, at the time of writing, Facebook hasn't updated facebook.com/f8 (it still shows the 2010 event) but the external page at f8.facebook.com is new (it refers to the 2011 event). In addition to the above image, here are the details included in the email I and others received:

f8 is Facebook's Conference for developers, entrepreneurs and innovators building a more social web by defining tomorrow’s websites, apps and devices.

SEPTEMBER 22, 2011 IN SAN FRANCISCO 10:00AM-5:00PM, REGISTRATION OPENS AT 8:30AM THE AFTER8 PARTY BEGINS AT 8:00PM

This all day event with Facebook engineers and product teams will feature keynotes and session tracks that highlight our new tools along with best practices for developers and partners building the next generation of social experiences.

The f8 conference typically starts off with a keynote by Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, followed by various breakout sessions concentrating on specific topics. The f8 conference has also been frequently used by the company to introduce new features and make announcements for the near future.

All that Facebook has said so far is that it will explore the following topics:

• New Products: We have some exciting product announcements that enable a new class of social apps
• Building Social Apps: Engineers and entrepreneurs share their best practices and strategies for building great social apps
• Open Q&A: Facebook’s engineering and product teams answer your questions

It's hard to say what exactly will be revealed this year, but many believe there could be a big focus on music. At the same time, there is also talk of new Like button functionality, which would obviously interest developers. See the links below for more information, including rumors and speculation.

The scheduling of f8 has been pretty erratic. The first event was on May 24, 2007 and the company introduced the notion of the social graph for the first time. The second event was on July 23, 2008 and the company introduced the a new Facebook Profile and explained how to integrate Facebook Connect into a website. There was no f8 event in 2009. The third event was on April 21, 2010 and the company announced the ability to add a Like button to any piece of content on the Web, as well as Open Graph Protocol, Graph API, and OAuth 2.0.

See also:

• Facebook rolls out the Ticker to more users
• Facebook working on unfiltered News Feed, expanded Like button
• Spotify will not be alone on Facebook's music service
• Facebook accidentally confirms upcoming music service
• Rumor: Facebook, Apple to take on Google with HTML5 platform
• Rumor: Facebook to take on Apple with HTML5 platform