Slide #1: Introduction This (30 minute!) presentation talks a little about the history and philosophy of video collaboration, the state of current technology, the application of collective knowledge, the results orientation for the technology, Slide #2: Telepresence and Phenomenology Video collaboration is a subset of telepresence, any technology which allow a person to feel as if they were presen at a location other than their true location. Normal (and quite restrictive) examples include telephones (audio at distance), television (vision at distance), both of which are one-to-one or one-to-many relationships; videoconferencing is many-to-many. Video-conferencing technologies have developed a long way from the expensive and limited closed circuit television systems or even the dual radiofrequency links used in early space flights, and then into specially designed trucks. Early attempts with POTS to transmit slow-scan video by AT&T ("Picturephone"), picture quality very poor. In early 90s CU-SeeMe was developed at Cornell University. First commercially successful Teleport (later changed to TeleSuite), founded in 1993 by David Allen and Harold Williams. First systems (TeleSuites) looked an upper class home environment. INstalled in Hilton Hotels, but usage was loss. In the mid-2000s the idea was revived (with better bandwidth and technologies). Variety of free services, web plugins and software, such as NetMeeting, MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, SightSpeed, Skype and others brought cheap, albeit low-quality videoconferencing. Ihde's phenomenological approach of technology has its origins in both the idea of technology as revealing the world and selectively enframing it. Subjective agents utilise technology with intentionality. The feedback received is the reflexive arc. The greater the degree of sensory amplification and less the degree of sensory selectivity the more the technology is described as transparent with utopian extremes as horizonal instances. The capacity of a technology to perform a range of functions is described as its multistability. Slide #3: Current Technology The core technology used in a videoconferencing systems is real-time compressed (ratio up 1:500) audio and video streams in real time. Desktop components include a video input (webcam), output (monitor), audio input and output (headset). Evo currently recommends a standard contemporary desktop system (MS-Windows, Linux or Mac), a Plantronics DSP 400 headset, and a Logitech Quickcam Pro webcam. My example bandwidth for desktop use: Access Grid; 800 kbps, 24 frames per second and Evo; 700 kbps, 15 frames per second. Access Grid however is even better suited for large scale videoconfercing; we at VPAC use two separate (older) desktop systems, one for audio and display, and one for capture. We also have three mounted cameras, a 7.6m projection wall, three good quality video projectors, echo cancelling unit, amplifier and speakers etc. The experience of Evo and Access Grid (and phenomenology is all about experience) is positive for the core technologies - video and audio is usually sufficiently clear for unproblematic communication and intelligibility. Extra utility with the additional technologies that are provided e.g., private meetings, private discussions within a meeting, file exchange, shared applications, white boards, meeting recorder/player Mass adoption is currently low. Main issues seen to be complexity of existing systems, bandwidth and quality of service issues, expense. Future will witness improvements in bandwidth, quality of service. , user interface and scope of shared applications. Current specialised nodes for large group (e.g., Access Grid) meetings. Future probability of conference rooms being available in existing Internet cafes? Slide #4 & #5: Collective knowledge Slide #4 image from Rui Vieira's photograph on Dina Rabinovitch's 'blog on the Guardian website (http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/books/2007/06/books_for_the_exam_season.html) on ideal books when cramming for exams. Lev Vygotsky's was a Soviet psychologist from the 1920s and early 30s (most well known book Thought and Language [or Thinking and Speech] (1934)., much of his work has been compiled "Mind in society: The development of higher psychological processes" (1978). Extremely influential in developmental psychology, from Jean Piaget onwards and with the Kharkov School of Psychology which operates to this day. Wrote much on the difference between "inner" and "external" speech, noting that external speech is the process of turning thought into words whereas inner speech is the opposite. "Over a decade even the profoundest thinkers never questioned the assumption; they never entertained the notion that what children can do with the assistance of others might be in some sense even more indicative of their mental development than what they can do alone." (From: "Mind in Society") Example: Person A has a "KQ" (Knowledge quotient) of 90 on a particular subject. Person B has a KQ of 60. In normal circumstances Person A knows more about the subject than Person B. However Person B is using Collaborative Technologies and also draws upon the resources of Person C (KQ of 70) and Person D (KQ of 50). It is possible (given various metrics) that Person B now has a higher KQ than A, who does not use the technologies. Slide #6: Not Just Social Networking Image is from Techshout, reporting on a Pew Internet survey that showed that young women were more likely than young men to use social networking technologies such as 'blogs, journals, instant message technologies and so forth: "35% of all teen girls blog as compared to 20 percent of online boys." http://www.techshout.com/internet/2007/20/teen-girls-access-web-more-than-boys-finds-survey/ Two different types of software are sometimes differentiated * social software which produces social ties as its primary output * collaborative software which produces a collaborative deliverable Collaborative technologies are focused on the output not the personal or relationship consequences of meetings. Base technologies like netnews, email, chat and wiki could be described as either "social" or "collaborative". Those who say "social" focus on so-called "virtual community" while those who say "collaborative" seem to be more concerned with content management and the actual output. Video collaboration technologies are usually synchronous, partially social, partially collaborative. Slide #7: Labour and Costs Reflexive Labour: "Labour applied to itself in order to improve productivity"? Research and administrative labour which doesn't actually produce anything itself, but improves the overall efficiency of direct labour. Transaction Costs: "the additional costs involved in a exchange of goods and services"; trivial example the costs involved in people meeting in order to agree to a contract. Slide #8: The Future Jim Van Meggelen (OReilly) 'blogged in 2005 that there were two key (and related) problems with existing video conferencing technology a) Technology *then* made establishment of eye contact difficult. b) Appearance consciousness. People are aware that they are on video and some early studies (Alphonse Chapanis) found that this actually impaired communication. http://www.oreillynet.com/etel/blog/2005/04/the_problem_with_video_confere.html The issue of eye-contact has largely been solved with improved technology, the issue of appearance consciousness requires people to become accustomed to videoconferencing. Deaf and hard of hearing individuals have a particular interest in the development of affordable high-quality videoconferencing as a means of communicating with each other in sign language. Possibility of mass distribution of video conferencing like Internet cafes? The Internet is primarily used for communication - video conferencing is the most advanced multipoint system available. Ubiquity should be expected.