Always-On Conferencing
A new understanding of personal interactions is key to designing the next generation of collaborative "always-on" conference systems.
Web Audio Conferencing is the fastest growing meeting format.
Solutions remain a compromise between face to face and a phone call.
For most participants the benefits are saving money and time.
Typically they also represent highly structured sessions, seldom occurring ad-hoc.
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Multi-conferencing communctions creates an environment like an open plan office. Our own radar provides active scanning of the conversations around us. Different conferences perturb us to listen or contribute. Every so often new information sources resonate. This may be characterised as "Order in Chaos" enabled through broad listening. We see example in RBC (receiver based communications - radios and intercoms) and IRC (Internet Relay Chat - text based)
Enhanced Listening
| Real communications are much closer to the messy, incomplete and complicated nature of an open plan office or the school playground.
A communications format is required that enables enhanced listening and positioning of voices while engaged in the call.
Additionally for an online system to be effective it must connect multiple conferences to expand listening capbilities.
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When these components are in place, the system will encourage new conversations, increase shared understanding and thus accelerate learning and action. We believe the conferencing systems of the future will:
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Enhance Listening – create, establish, and join conferences of interest
Create a persistent set of conferences to enable a “resonance” and increase personal bandwidth for scanning.
Enable ownership of personal communication spaces or project conferences both public and private.
Use multi-modes --- text, voice, and application sharing to stimulate, capture and record progress
Encourages an “always-on” interconnected environment of ongoing exchanges.
Examples include my office, meeting rooms, situation rooms, the lobby, project
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A classic example from research done at Xerox PARC:
Years ago Xerox began using receiver-based communication to continuously improve the work of it’s repair teams. Each worker has a walkie-talkie which is on all the time, carrying messages, just like the radio in a taxi. When a repair worker hears something relevant to a problem he is interested in, he will pay close attention. In this way, improvements spread rapidly across the group. |
Thus DiamondWare conferencing solutions are designed to meet the fololowing conference needs. Does yours?
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Provide 3D Sound Positioning of all conference participants, delivering an additional kind of presence
Enable broad listening so users can participate in multiple conferences at the same time, via audio, text or in combination.
Be location agnostic and device adaptive to enable mobility and enhance always-on features regardless of the device form factor. |
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