Chapter 7 Case 1

1. What kinds of limitations do you see for users of telepresence? Is it really a substitute for face-to-face meetings? Make a list of features of face-to-face meetings. Then consider a range of business situations as an employee, from initial hire, to working with a team, to understanding what your boss wants, and even a termination meeting. How would telepresence work for you in these situations? Face to face meetings have eye contact, spatial orientation (sounds come from the direction of speakers), and non-verbal gestures (body movements) are visible. The technology is reliable and easy to use. On the face of it, tele-presence would seem to be lacking the kind of personal warmth (or heat) of a face-to-face meeting. Eye contact is difficult even though you can see eyes move on screen; in large screen versions, non-verbal communication might be possible, but not in smaller screen versions. At the least, people’s expectations of a “business relationship” will change from personal contact to “telescreen” contact. However, these tele-relationships might be perfect satisfactory for business purposes. 2. What are the business benefits of telepresence described in these videos? What is the benefit of a hologram? Benefits predicted in the videos include strategic communications solution; productivity gains; decreased time to market; building stronger relationships with customers, suppliers, and partners; reduce geographical limitations; increases in the speed of decision making.

3. In the past, work was organized into central buildings located in central locations (like cities) in order to facilitate face-to-face interactions. What impacts might telepresence have on the organization of work? How could you use these tools to organize work on a global scale with actually building physical facilities in remote locations?