Chris Shipley is always interested in products that "advance the art of meetings". These vendors demonstrated their virtual meeting platforms at DEMO 2006 in Scottsdale:
Polyvision has been working on the problem of sharing and displaying large amounts of information. The product launched at DEMO, Thunder, is a virtual flipchart system. Information is captured and displayed on the system, rather than living in a big mess of paper on the walls. It's cleaner in the room, and friendlier for those trying to participate remotely.
Another videoconferencing solution was presented by VSee. Benefits touted include clarity (it looked reasonable) and the ease of adding people in - it's basically identical to adding people to an IM conversation. The video is very low latency, and audio synchronization was a priority given the company's interest in the perception issues that typically plague this communication medium. The company's giving out free accounts to DEMO attendees, so I'll give it a try. It did look like an improvement over popular consumer videoconferencing.
These improvements in technology were both interesting, but I'm still looking for the magic wand that replicates all of the elements of the face-to-face experience.
Tags: christine herron christine.net space jockeys demo 2006 vsee polyvision technology collaboration
