Does videoconferencing technology point the way to a greener future?
By Nathan Johnson
In recent decades, the science fiction genre provided countless scenarios in which 'face to face' conversations take place between characters physically remote from each other. Surely, most of us retain some early impression of a futuristic 'vid-screen' from film or literature, as well as some recollection of how we reacted at the time to the concept. With telephones and televisions already in millions of households by the end of the 1950s, audio-visual personal communication seemed inevitable at some point, but how many of us expected the technology to develop so rapidly, and to be so easily accessible?
The future arrived early for me last year when I hooked up a cheap camera to my home computer so I could see my parents in the US while 'skyping' them from Hungary. It's wonderful enough that we can now have a trans-Atlantic conversation on Skype free of charge, but better yet that we can see each other at the same time. For expats like me, along with several of my friends and colleagues, Skype is an especially welcome technological breakthrough.
Advanced communication technologies are quickly becoming part of daily life for millions, but professional possibilities, such as videoconferencing, involve different dynamics. In either case it will be interesting to see if audio-visual communication technologies can develop in ways to encourage greener behaviour, though I must here admit to some scepticism.
Have technology: will travel
Any improved means of communication helps to shrink vast distances between friends and family, but I think it's difficult to argue that people made less homesick are necessarily less likely to travel abroad. In fact, progressive innovations in communication - from the telegraph to the telephone to the internet - have made people increasingly willing to tolerate long distances from home - that is, in the 'place I grew up' sense of home. Of course, advances in modes of transportation have provided the physical means for radical relocation, but improved modes of communication have provided means for tolerating separations that might otherwise prove unbearable over long periods of time.
What many recent technologies have in common is the capacity to encourage increased mobility. One need only examine some of the product nomenclature: the Walkman or mobile telephone, the laptop (because, presumably, you're away from your desktop). While these technologies don't seem necessarily inimical to development of a good public transportation network, they also don't necessarily discourage private transportation-dominant infrastructure.
This brings me to some consideration of possible impacts of videoconferencing technology on travel in general and air travel in particular.
Consider, for example, a paradoxical logistical scenario in which hundreds, if not thousands, of delegates are flown from various points around the globe to attend discussions on global warming and climate change. I raise this point neither to ridicule efforts to build and sustain international dialogue nor to suggest that everyone should walk, row or hitchhike to the discussion table. The point is rather to wonder whether or not it's possible to hold multi-party discussions at a distance.
A world of possibilities
Some of my colleagues have shared a few of their thoughts on videoconferencing, with more than one suggesting that, regardless of other logistical strengths or weaknesses, participants must, first of all, learn to grow comfortable interacting with the new technology. Just as everyone usually recoils in horror when hearing a recording of their 'real' voice for the first time, people initially find it difficult to comport themselves normally and communicate effectively when conscious of the fact that they are being 'viewed' as much as being listened to.
Long-time Green Horizon editor Pavel Antonov mentions also that sufficient broadband potential is necessary for such endeavours so that connections don't become clogged or conversation freezes. He says also that the UK's Open University, which he attends, "maintains equipment for videoconferencing and often uses it, not only for representative events, but for things like examination committee meetings."
The REC's director of communications, Zsolt Bauer, is fairly optimistic about the new technology, some of which the REC uses: "We use WebEx for internet and video conferences," says Bauer. "We tested it with CEE countries, such as Bosnia & Herzegovina and Serbia - also with Turkey and Japan. The quality is acceptable and you can hear others easily. The cost is something like 500 euro per year.
"The software has many features that make it perfect for conferences," he continues, "such as desktop and document sharing with annotation possibility; secure connections; record, edit and playback functions for meetings; the ability to join meetings from your iPhone, et cetera. But there are limits as well. If you want to connect four persons from one room with two or three others you need a cameraman who can follow the speakers in the room - which means you need special microphones and headsets.
"I think the technology is great, but we have to adjust our expectations and travel habits to the new possibilities. I would connect it to a CO2 calculation and tell people about the immediate savings," Bauer concludes.
