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<span style="font-size: 20px; font-weight: bold;
color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: arial;
line-height: 110%;">OPLIN 4Cast #227: Lessons
from Bobsled</span><br>
<!-- Make sure you modify the date of the 4Cast in this section -->
<span style="font-size: 11px; font-weight: normal;
color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-style: italic;
font-family: arial;">April 27th, 2011</span></p>
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<p style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.oplin.org/4cast/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/bobsled_sm1.png"><img
class="alignleft size-full wp-image-1852"
style="margin-right: 4px;" title="bobsled
logo"
src="cid:part2.01020809.00020405@oplin.org"
alt="" height="86" width="180"></a>Last week,
T-Mobile received quite a bit of attention in the
technical media when they introduced "Bobsled," an
app for Facebook that allows Facebook friends to
talk to one another through their Facebook pages.
This week, it's gone, temporarily suspended
because of "design questions" from Facebook. While
Bobsled's fast up-and-down trajectory is
noteworthy in itself, it also illustrates just how
much Facebook has become a widespread
communication medium, one which has the ability to
handle <em>all</em> types of communication. The
"between the lines" message for public libraries
in this week's <em>4cast</em>: if you have a
Facebook page, you should be gearing up now to
handle direct patron-to-library communications
through Facebook. </p>
<div> </div>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.eweek.com/c/a/VOIP-and-Telephony/TMobiles-Bobsled-Brand-Offers-VOIP-Calling-for-Facebook-271099/">T-Mobile's
Bobsled brand offers VOIP calling for Facebook</a>
(eWeek/Michelle Maisto) "First to launch under
the Bobsled brand [...] is a Facebook
application that lets Facebook users—who don't
need to be T-Mobile subscribers—call their
"friends" through Facebook's chat window. The
first VOIP (voice over IP) app to integrate into
Facebook Chat, according to T-Mobile, users can
place a call by clicking on a friend's name.
There are no screen names or numbers to
remember. Should the friend be unavailable,
users can leave a private audio message on the
friend's wall. And to receive a Bobsled call
through Facebook, you don't need to download
anything."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/04/19/t-mobiles-bobsled-is-a-free-facebook-based-voip-app/">T-Mobile's
Bobsled is a free, Facebook-based, VoIP app</a>
(MobileCrunch/Devin Coldewey) "So Bobsled is
T-Mobile's wedge in the video chat world, an
answer to Facetime and Skype that's
carrier-operated and can easily be included on
T-Mobile-branded devices like the G-Slate and
G-series phones. I haven't tested it out, but
it'd be hard to mess this up. It looks like this
first step was taken mainly because it was the
easiest (just branding a licensed service), and
the meat of the program will show up later."</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2383828,00.asp">T-Mobile
challenges Skype, Google with 'Bobsled'
Facebook VOIP app</a> (PC Magazine/Mark
Hachman) "In March, Facebook and Skype were said
to be mulling a partnership that would tie Skype
directly into the Facebook environment.
Currently, users can call Facebook friends using
Skype, a less integrated approach. 'Last year we
announced the integration of Facebook in Skype,
so people can keep up to date with their
Facebook friends through News Feed in Skype and
even call and SMS their Facebook friends on any
phone from Skype,' Facebook said in March. 'With
regards to any further integration, we don't
comment on rumor and speculation and have
nothing to announce at this time.'"</li>
<li style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><a
href="http://moconews.net/article/419-bobsled-goes-off-the-tracks-t-mobile-suspends-its-facebook-voice-servic/">Bobsled
goes off the tracks: T-Mobile suspends its
Facebook voice service</a> (mocoNews/Ingrid
Lunden) "Facebook and Skype announced a
cooperative agreement <a
href="http://moconews.net/article/419-skype-rides-facebooks-graph-to-bring-voip-to-facebookers/">last
year</a> [...] but so far that has not
extended into the golden, 500-million user
opportunity of offering Skype voice and video
calls from within Facebook. If Facebook did
enter into such a deal, having another voice
(and potentially video) service available on
Facebook, like Bobsled, could confuse people—and
moreover drive users to the competing service
instead of the one that Facebook itself was
actually promoting."</li>
</ul>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
<p style="text-align: left; font-size: 20px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;"><small><strong><em>Demand
fact:</em></strong></small><br>
</p>
<div style="text-align: justify; font-size: 16px;
font-family: arial; line-height: 110%;">T-Mobile
claims that 88% of Facebook users want voice chat
built into Facebook. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;"> </div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">The <strong><em>OPLIN
4cast</em></strong>
is a weekly compilation of
recent headlines, topics, and trends that could
impact public
libraries. You can subscribe to it in a variety
of ways, such as: <br>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>RSS
feed.</strong>
You
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><strong>E-mail.</strong>
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