Evan Anthony

Communication Mediums and Video Conferencing

“R u 4 real? i dun get it. port?” was what my former co-worker’s eighth text message said one unusually hot summer night. It was 10 p.m. and he was still at the office. I left around 7 p.m. and everything seemed under control. “Calling u,” I replied. We spent 20 minutes on the phone and, throughout our entire conversation, I found myself hurriedly trying to wrap everything up. My friends were coming to pick me up any moment. It was Friday and it had been a long, strenuous week.

In retrospect, we were having difficulties understanding each other via text messages. The phone call was an improvement, but it still took 20 minutes before we could resolve the situation. Irrespective of the highly technical nature of our discussion, I think we would have solved the situation faster had I been at the office with him because we would have been able to talk face-to-face. Throughout the years, I’ve discovered that it’s better to be geographically close when trying to prove a point.

This episode recently popped into my mind while I was having a heated discussion about communication mediums with my close friend Dave, who believed that although we have a bazillion different tools readily available we may not necessarily be communicating more efficiently. I have to agree.

Dave and I favor face-to-face communication because there are so many elements at one’s disposal to determine if the other person is on the same page — body language, eye contact, and facial expressions. However, Dave also thinks face-to-face interactions require people to be at the same physical location and require synchronous responses. Your attention must be devoted to the other person and this is not well-suited for multitasking. Would you ever be checking your e-mails and listening to some MP3s while having a tête-à-tête at your workplace?

In this regard, e-mails and IMs have a clear advantage. The text medium is inherently asynchronous and doesn’t have time constraints. You don’t need to pay constant attention to the other party. Heck, sometimes you don’t even know what the sender’s intention is until two or three text messages have been exchanged.

On the other hand, phone calls help immensely because you can perceive tone and determine the other person’s commitment level. Is this person interested in the conversation? Are there distractions around him/her?

When time and circumstances permit, video conferencing is my preferred communication choice. Skype (for both PC and Mac) is my most-liked videoconferencing tool. The newest version has high quality video built-in. I’ve also tried the latest version of iChat (Mac only) and, I must say, this lightweight application does a superb job as well.

These are not the only options, of course. For all of you Windows acolytes, there appear to be several options. The best ones (according to fellow geeks out there) are VSee, SightSpeed, PalBee and Adobe Connect Now.

There you have it. Now you can enjoy your talks with all the nuances of facial expressions and body language regardless of distance. Oh, by the way, most of these tools are also available for Linux. What? Did you think I’d forget about you, my fellow techies?

Until the conversation with my co-worker on that hot summer night, I had been an impassioned advocate of IMs and text messages. After almost an hour of excruciating to and fro, I became a critic. Presently, if you want to reach me and discuss a very important topic, you better have Skype installed. You can also wait and set up a meeting the next day. Suit yourself.