If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it crash to the earth, does it make a sound?

If a person exists in real life, yet does not have a Facebook profile, does he really exist?

My first year on Facebook was mostly spent ignoring it. And then came the news feed. That made it a little more worth my time to check on it from time to time. Now we have applications, and so Facebook has become a true work/play “platform.”

I’m sure there’s a lot to write about the Facebook Platform, but this isn’t a software blog, it’s a VoIP blog, so let’s talk about VoIP. I’ve been keeping an eye on the telephony applications appearing on Facebook.

Applications I use:

GrandCentral: dead simple but useful. Adds a CallMe button to your profile. This works as a Facebook integration because the button is personalized to the profile on which it sits. I’m looking at Bill’s profile and want to call him. Click the button. (VoIP because GrandCentral is VoIP on the backend. Visit GrandCentral.com to find out what this is, if you haven’t heard of it, and e-mail me if you want to be invited.)

Free Conference Calls by iotum: it’s a standard conference bridge. But the cool part is how you invite people to a scheduled conference call. It works just like the Facebook Events application and therefore is familiar to Facebook users. You can also invite external people by e-mail. During the call, participants can hang out on the Facebook page to see who’s in the call (highlighted green) and who is not (red), updated realtime, and review the agenda. According to iotum’s Alec Saunders, they’re planning to include a wall component to allow notes to be added in realtime, as well as recording.

Updated 10/2/07: Today Iotum has added two new, useful features to the Facebook Free Conference Calls application. From the application page, you (the call organizer) can mute or unmute participants. Participants can also indicate that they wish to speak by virtually raising a hand.

Haven’t yet tried but might:

Voicemail by FWD: a good idea, but I think I’d rather have people call via the GrandCentral button and leave voicemail for me in my common voicemail box.

Applications I won’t bother with: anything that just puts a link in my profile or applications menu to an external web site or program. What’s the point? There’s no real Facebook integration there.

What I’m really waiting for is a slick Adobe Flash embedded application that truly lets me “click-to-call.”