Videoconferencing as an E-Collaboration Tool

Videoconferencing (VC) is primarily a synchronous, long distance, e-collaboration tool. Although it offers interpersonal features with some degree of media richness and social presence, it is not a perfect substitute for face-to-face communication. VC can add value in business situations where telephone, text chat, or audio conferencing do not provide adequate secondary communication channels such as nonverbal cues (tone of voice, inflection) and interactions (body language). VC also adds value where it is impossible or undesirable to conduct a personal meeting. Currently there exists an opportunity for organizations and individuals to derive enormous benefit from this medium when used appropriately with necessary tactics and skills, especially when multiple parties are involved in e-collaboration. VC is a real-time e-collaboration technology phenomenon which enables individuals at different locations to communicate with each other via video monitors and speakers. The participants sit in front of cameras and interact, viewing and hearing each other as if they are in the same room (Barlow, Peter, & Barlow, 2002). VC can be used independently or as an extension to face-to-face meetings with some participants talking in person and others via technology. To conduct a VC, at least two endpoints and a transmission system are necessary. Endpoints are locations from which video is broadcast or received. Typical endpoints can be a computer-based desktop unit with appropriate software, Webcam, speakers, and perhaps an overhead projector; a conference room unit which is a device that integrates audio/video reception/broadcast for a meeting room setting; or a class room unit that projects the conference to a screen. All endpoints are reliant upon a coder-decoder (codec) to transform video and audio streams into packets that can be transmitted over a network and then returned to viewable and displayable form. Endpoints are connected to standard networks such those used for telephones, cable television, or the Internet. In order to communicate successfully it is important that the linking network(s) have adequate bandwidth. Typically, dial-up connections will not work. DSL or Cable connections would be better. INTERNET2, the new higher bandwidth version of the Internet, is expected to be much better. Additional technologies that make more effective use of bandwidth can also be used, such as signal compression and conversion.