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 telepresence 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? Telepresence, like