[Sigia-l] When will you buy one?

[Will Parker]

On Jun 2, 2007, at 9:53 PM, Ziya Oz wrote:

> Andrew Boyd:
>
>> fully electronic meeting concept
>
> Everyone seems to have a PC and broadband.
> And yet, people still meet electronically in miniscule numbers.  
> What gives?
> Are we not suited for this as a species? Pheromones? Technology?

Meetings are, at bottom, social events, so consider which social  
aspects of face-to-face meetings are missing from the electronic  
version.

Personally, I'd bet the unpopularity of electronic meetings is  
largely due to the lack of body language cues. In a face-to-face,  
most people can pick up the reaction of the group to any given event  
or proposal just from everyone else's posture. In most situations,  
voice alone is not enough to persuade the audience to go along with  
your proposals.

I can tell you from personal experience that adding in a video  
channel that shows you to your audience and vice-versa does much to  
get around this shortcoming. I landed a contract job at Apple in  
part, I think, because I proposed an interview via iChat rather than  
having them fly me down from Seattle, and in part because I could  
keep all the interviewers engaged visually.

- Will

Will Parker
wparker at ChannelingDesign.com

“I wish developing great products was as easy as writing a check. If  
that were the case, then Microsoft would have great products.” -  
Steve Jobs