Facebook video call

Facebook Powered Skype.

There is a new feature on Facebook that is pretty interesting.
I pulled one of my sisters out of the chat cue last night and facebook asked if I wanted to video chat instead of IM chat.
I pushed the button. A small program downloaded to my computer and called up my sister who was on Facebook and text chatting with me. We then connected via Dick Tracy.

The Historical Dream

Dick Tracy was the mythical police officer in the daily comics in my youth that had a watch that allowed him to communicate by wrist TV to his headquarters and to his support team. This added a Sci Fi twist to crime solving. Who would know that now that is within the range of all of us through our computers via Facebook.


We also watched a demo of the future in calling with video back in the 1980's Disneyland. We were enthralled as it was to be able to talk in a group booth to a phone somewhere in the US and all contribute to the conversation. As in "Guess where we are? We are all in Disneyland. Do you want to talk to Mom? She is right here!" Video chat was still a far off dream and who would ever guess that the connection would be through the internet.. Internet what was that?

Chatting with Live Video

Last night we rang each other up through Facebook and had a nice conversation using the new technology powered by Skype. Our connections were good and the sound was great. It was mac to mac.  We were able to show each other things that we referenced in the conversation. We have both been doing some art work and it was nice to talk artsy talk too.

In the past, my complaint with Skype has been that it didn't keep up with the audio let alone the video. Last night it was all working and the lips synced and the audio didn't echo.

It was interesting that Facebook became the badge of required info for the use of this technology. Social network spin alongs have been using this info to validated members playing all sorts of games and interest categories.

Groups with Facebook

I signed up to an event for our cruise and have seen many helpful posting on the cruise. It is interesting to see the social network stars for the cruise appear in the log-blog. Princess set this up so that passengers would have a chance to network.

I set one up for our class to communicate with a Facebook entity. It is important to set it up in the right category. There are definite differences between a personal page and a group page. If you are setting up a web page to do siimilar things it takes an imbedded engine to sort and sift and allow for moderation. This has become the new interactive source on the web that does not require programer interaction. what you give up in the process is some degree of privacy.  

Have a great week  : ) Pat