AT&T introduced a video phone over 40 years ago. PictureTel, a video conferencing company started in 1984…25 years ago. Today MSN Messenger, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, Skype, and a bunch of startups including Seesmic, ooVoo and SightSpeed offer video conferencing/chat.
David Pogue at the New York Times wrote “Video Chats Overcome Clunkiness” describing how the new version of Skype is actually pretty good for video chat. High quality sound and video, fast transmission, and useful added features.
A poor start - In the past video conferencing was expensive, unreliable, poor quality, and required special equipment and high speed connections. Only the most dedicated souls would use it. Today most of those problems are solved and prices have come down to where basic services are free. So why isn’t everyone using it?
Where does it fit? Your first important meeting with someone needs to be in person. You need to establish a relationship, get a feel for their personality, body language, voice intonation, etc. Once you establish a relationship a simple telephone call works well. When you know them well nothing beats email for thorough, documented, communication. Where along that continuum does video fit in?
On Line Learning – The one obvious area for video conferencing is distance learning, where seeing the subject is important. Another area is product demonstrations, but even here screen sharing programs like Live Meeting work much better.
Are you using video conferencing/chat? What are the best uses of real time video? What are your favorite products or services? What will it take for video to take off? Will a poor economy and travel restrictions cause more people to use video conferencing services?
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