I really need to take a day off…but this is sooo much fun. 🙂
So many technical innovations that we have been working on for many years seem to be coming to fruition. The form is different (in fact, we never imagined the importance of the Internet when we were starting out….hmmmm, there was no Internet when we started), but, the concept is the same:
Meet with remote colleagues, friends, or family as easily as if you were in the same location. And you can do this from anywhere, anytime, to anyone. THIS is the true definition of “telepresence”. (See my “Personal Telepresence-The Original” blog entry here).
This article is one of many (and reports on TV) telling us that colleges are now starting to interview prospective students using videoconferencing.
ooVoo and Skype have desktop videoconferencing (yes….this is all a form of the very old concept called desktop videoconferencing) options that are free to use. ooVoo even allows three people to meet together for free (see my review of ooVoo).
2009 may be shaping up to be the year “deskop videoconferencing” finally hits the mainstream. THAT would “make my day”, since it has been a long long d-i-f-f-i-c-u-l-t road to evangelize this technology…
Here are two YouTube videos that show where we have been. The first is my daughter (at home) meeting with a Professor at a college in San Diego via a Polycom PVX, and the second is our “Personal Telepresence” concept (for educational use) from 1992 (as shown on the Discovery Channel’s “Answer Guys” segment in 1995?)
Home to a Professor in San Diego (8th Grade, my daughter is now a Junior in HS)
TechyMike: Technology Made Easy 