Teleconferencing - free global phone - video no extra charge!

Photo and caption is (c)2006 The Haralson Gateway-Beacon

Why?

sound quality improvement: replace tinny "real" phone with in-room-like sound
new modalities: video, free multi-way (5) chat; unified messaging & recording
time saver: replace travel with communication (like postal mail, phone, etc.)
money saver: "ace in the hole" as transportation costs rise despite ardent efforts at economy (oil "addiction")
health saver: less likely to be injured or killed than when travelling (or in war!)
competitive necessity as other parties exploit it
the state of videoconferencing 2005 (Technology Review)
short (3:05) video clip from 2006: Ethernet inventor Bob Metcalfe on how online video [including teleconferencing] will change the world
short (3:40) video clip from 2001 about videoconferencing
56kbps 216 kbps
When?

Later: people have cried "wolf" for decades! Chicken and egg - or will vs. fate?
Later: Famed digital technology columnist John C. Dvorak bemoans how refractory US social psychology - even among young business leaders in 2006 - is retarding rollout in typical non-government workplaces; review reader feedback on his essay here.
Now: The Issue 16.10 (Sept. 2008) issue of Wired magazine discusses new reasons to favor teleworking, but sighs: Though a third of the more than 150 million working Americans telecommute at least occasionally, most do so just a few days each month. On an optimistic note, it observes Earlier this year, an IDC report from Asia found that 81 percent of managers believe telecommuting improves productivity, up from 61 percent in 2005.
Now: Skype has dozens of millions of users; can "Skype In"/"Skype Out"
Now: eBay just bought Skype for $3 BILLION - all telco backbones to be VoIP
Now: computers and needed accessories, fast Internet services both now CHEAP
Now: urban areas are getting 3G wireless phones - we in country will wait long?
How?

free library deployment of the service
model for deployment at your home/business - and those of friends/partners

free software ($0)
cheap "broadband" (fast) Internet service ($15 to 20/month+)
cheap personal computers (PCs) ($200-300+ plus monitor)
cheap/bundled-free reception hardware ($0)
cheap audio capture hardware ($5+)
cheap video capture hardware ($10+)

Postscripts added after Spring 2006

West Georgia Regional Library system deployment
Informal experiment of April 2007

Entering the high-tech telepresence era very soon

Eminent Harvard biologist E. O. Wilson said on August 5, 2007:

We are entering... a high-tech era... It's going to be... a determining factor around the world in a very short period of time... because high technology can be made cheap and it can be spread around the world very fast. And this has a wonderful potential for relieving... the pressure which humanity puts on the world and making our lives easier. Of course, one obvious one is the dispersed work-place; that's already occuring in the United States. Another one is... teleconferencing... which once it gets to the point where it is easy, accessible, and very realistic... can replace an awful lot of jet miles... bringing people together just for a conference, as opposed to having a beer together, or using it as an excuse to travel to an interesting city... And... so... with the potential for dispersion... through workplaces that are at -least- as efficient as ones that are centralized in the traditional urban structure... and the choice that that gives to people to live in an urban environment, a suburban environment, -or- well out into a more natural environment, that has the potential for changing America, moving it in the right direction. It gives people choice, it gives them a greater opportunity for happiness and satisfaction with their work, and it -also- is a tremendous potential benefit to the environment.

Certainly within the next ten years (by 2019)

Famed underwater explorer Robert Ballard said on July 3, 2009:

And now with the technology of telepresence - we can take ya there. We did, er, with National Geographic a few years ago, we did a live broadcast from the deck of the Titanic. And what some day you're gonna actually wire the Titanic and it's gonna be a place you VISIT electronically.
Because telepresence technology - that we're sorta pioneering - is really the beginning of ELECTRONIC TRAVEL. Er, you're gonna have in your home, certainly within the next ten years, a, a, a room - uh we used to call it the DEN - and, uh, when you turn on the room the WALLS will come on, and you'll sit - it's probably spherical, so it isn't square-like walls - but you'll be in a spherical room, and you'll rent a robot from Hertz and you'll go for a drive in the Serengeti and spend the afternoon driving around. And - it'll be very INEXPENSIVE compared to FLYING to the Serengeti.
Um, what's really neat about these installation of remote cameras - we've been doing it in the national marine sanctuaries - particularly Monterrey - we went in, installed underwater cameras on. on cable, so they could RIDE through the, through the, uh sanctuary. And what we found was, when we were installing the cameras - everyone ran away. But as soon as we left - all the creatures came back out, went up and poked their fuh, noses into the cameras. And we were able to see things that DIVERS wouldn't see. And, wuh, you know - this is something you could do in, in Yellowstone Park - you can, lih, lih, uh, go and wire up Yellowstone - they're already got the ring road in there - and you'll be able to see creatures that would normally run away, like the packs of wolves.
So telepresence is really gonna CHANGE our lives. - We're gonna do more and more, uh - FROM HOME. I think what's wonderful about telepresence - cause it's impacting on my PERSONAL life - is it's reinventing the family. You're able to spend much, much more time at home - EVEN in my business of exploration. I'm spending now more time at HOME than any time in my LIFE and I'm exploring more than any time in my life. So, it's a, really a plus-plus.

One decade into the future (2016)

Artificial intelligence pioneer Ray Kurzweil said on November 5, 2006:

...[Virtual reality-enhanced meetings] will be very realistic... We've got ten years... This is, you know, how most meetings will take place. You know, the whole technology of buildings, classrooms, lecture halls, cities... is really for aggregating people so that we can get together and communicate. We're going to be increasingly doing that in virtual environments as these virtual environments get more and more realistic... to the point... where they're indistinguishable from real reality. And when we can go inside the nervous system... and do that from inside the nervous system... it will also include the tactile and other senses... and it will really be just like being together.

This page last revised July 2009