Last week I wrote about Obliterate or strategically use business travel?
Then I saw this post on Facebook by NetTeams wizardess, Jessica Lipnack. Her emphasis on the social processes resonates. It is worth a link here…
Facebook | Jessica Lipnack’s Notes
…Many reporters, for example, The New York Times’s fine one, Steve Lohr, whose article, “As travel costs rise, more meetings go virtual,” took the headline earlier this week. Nothing wrong with Lohr’s article, good, solid reporting with news for the newbies to the area: Cisco’s telepresence offering, high price tag aside, makes participants feel like they’re “there;” “companies of all sizes are beginning to shift to Web-based meetings for training and sales;” and this, worth the pull quote:
A report last month by the Global e-Sustainability Initiative, a group of technology companies, and the Climate Group, an environmental organization, estimated that up to 20 percent of business travel worldwide could be replaced by Web-based and conventional videoconferencing technology.
Twenty percent? Me thinks a lot higher. But, numbers aside, where Lohr’s article is like all the rest – and where it misses the point – is in this: Technology alone does not solve the problem. I’ve harped on about this before. Our old motto, “90% people, 10% technology,” is being drowned out by the reflexive action whereby companies/organizations throw technology into the hands that once held airline tickets.
Here are a couple of more related articles if you are interested in this topic of when and how to replace F2F meetings with virtual meetings.
July 31 Addition: As an added afterthought (I keep adding links) this is also a technology stewardship issue. Who is building the capacity to use these tools well? What does their community of practice look like!)
- From Jessica: “Bored on conference calls? Relief!“
- An emerging page on the KM4Dev wiki on virtual meeting tools
- Edited and added 18 hours later – Report on Microsoft virtual world meetings
- And on a related tangent, a report on virtual leadership.
- Added on July 31 – Has the Telecommunity Tipping Point Finally Arrived?
Photo Credit:
Uploaded on July 7, 2008
by linh.ngân
NetTeams Wizardess, Nancy? Best nick I’ve ever had. No, I take that back. My all-time fave: Collaboration Goddess. Where, oh, where is my following? I guess I’ll never see them as they’re virtual. (Seriously, thanks for this.)