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Telework Virtual Team Tip 4: Video Conferencing Is Worth Its Weight In Gold

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video conference  video conferencingOne of the classic challenges for telework is that written communication and audio conference calls lack the visual clues and body language that is so important to achieving real understanding during critical meetings.

This is an issue for all forms of virtual work but is at its worst when the parties communicating are scattered around the world and don’t share a common language or culture.

Given the magnitude of this problem there is enormous value to using a system that provides participants with a sense of human-to-human connection. 

There are a number of early-stage systems available that provide very advanced techniques for addressing this problem.  These include approaches such as avatar-based 3D virtual workspaces, 3D workspaces with embedded live video, and holographic techniques.  Applications of this type are producing some very interesting results and I will write about them in detail in a later post.

In the near term the most common form of providing that sense of human connection is some form of video conferencing.

There are dozens of studies that present the results of formal research studies on this topic.  More informally, I will simply say that I’ve probably spent thousands of hours in vitual meetings – using every form of technology available and the bottom line is that video conferencing is worth its weight in gold.  This is especially true as the group is more distributed and more culturally diverse. 

There has been a great deal of discussion about the important role that body language plays in the nuances of human communication but the realty is that much of the value of video conferencing comes from much more simple mechanics.  For example, in audio conference calls it is often hard to tell who is speaking.  White board interaction is impossible.  Using video conferencing it is easier to understand an accented speaker by watching his or her facial movements.

For fixed site locations room-scale video conferencing systems provide a strong sense of presence and interaction, especially the very high-end telepresence systems.  The best of these systems give a sense of all participants being colocated in one room.  There are really only two downsides to these systems.  One is that they require participants to travel to a specific fixed location.  The second is cost, with the very high end systems being quite expensive.  In regard to that cost, if your organization plans to hold a large number of recurring meetings from fixed locations the return on investment for a high quality system is often very high.  (See http://tinyurl.com/7hstrlp . )

Recent advancements in web-based conferencing provides much of the benefit of higher end fixed-location video conferencing systems but at a lower price and available anywhere there is a decent web connection.  HD versions are now available that provide very high quality video associated with desktop visibility. (See http://tinyurl.com/d3x8qpz .)

Most recently this type of web conferencing is becoming available in a mobile environment using smartphones and tablets.  In some cases these are early-stage systems but they are already providing hugely value capabilities to mobile workers.  (See http://tinyurl.com/dykgroo .)

Whatever form is most useful to your particular situation, you should go for the best video conferencing you can afford.

These are my views.  I’d love to hear yours.

 

 

 

 

There are a number of different organizations working on developing new technology that may provide very powerful techniques for addressing this problem.  These include approaches such as avatar-based 3D virtual workspaces, 3D workspaces with embedded live video, and holographic techniques.  The early-stage version of some of these sy

The post Telework Virtual Team Tip 4: Video Conferencing Is Worth Its Weight In Gold appeared first on Working Nowhere.


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