A bit harsh, but true. Look at the technological improvements over the decades - which are drastic, dramatic, and amazing, just like virtual collaboration will no doubt be. Who doesn't want a Cisco Telepresence in their home?
BUT please, how has this changed collaboration? It has sped up the delivery of details and perhaps the volume of knowledge in the room. BUT how have people changed? How have our interactions changed? We still follow the same anti-collaborative practices that we do in face to face meetings, or phone calls or snail mail. Are we better collaborators because we can video chat with someone on Skype or Gmail? Are our daily lives more effective because our virtual Second Life world has improved our day-to-day performance? When products like Nortel web.alive are commonplace are we really going to be more collaborative?
NO. We need to work better together in person, in every exchange, to make better collaboration a way of life.
How to get started:
+ In your next meeting of over 10 people have a facilitator
+ In your next meeting, ban all forms of non-verbal communication
+ In your next meeting, only write on white boards in all capital letters so the furthest person away can read every single letter.
+ In your next meeting have a note taker that sends out what happened and the to-dos to everyone within 10 minutes of the meetings conclusion.
+ Bonus- instead of meeting notes, have a visual note taker. Either a scribe or someone keeping a mindmap like offered by Mindmeister.com or Mindjet.com
Nortel WEB.ALIVE
Cool virtual tech that could be fantastic in the office.