Ever since Hewlett-Packard and DreamWorks entered the field of telepresence and effective visual collaboration with their Halo Collaboration Studio in December I have been getting a lot of questions along the lines of "What is the Big Deal About Telepresence". These questions have doubled since Cisco Systems announced that they are going to be releasing a telepresence offering in a March article in Newsweek.

DreamWorks Telepresence Storyboard Solution from The DreamWorks Machine - Wired 13:06

So... What is the Big Deal about Telepresence?

My stock (short) answer to the question is thus:

Over the next decade virtually every major Global 5000 company (and many smaller companies, universities, medical schools, museums, and private individuals) will be adopting a technology that will allow them to feel as if they are interacting with others that physically might be thousands of miles away but, for all intents and purposes, will seem as if they are in the same room. This technology will be called telepresence.

In a telepresence meeting remote participants will be life-size, with fluid motion, accurate flesh-tones, and flawless audio. Telepresence systems will be easy enough for anyone to operate and be remarkably handy for collaborating on work or simply sharing family photos. The experience will feel remarkably natural and comfortable and will be as addictive to some as crack.

TeleSuite System in Meeting

Telepresence capabilities will be available at the desktop, for small groups, medium-sized groups, and in large distance education classrooms. Executives and the affluent will have telepresence capabilities in their homes but everyone else will be able to easily rent a telepresence system in a hotel, mall, restaurant, and/or pub and within a decade's time you won't think twice about having a virtual business meeting (or virtual dinner with friends) with participants from Shanghai, Tokyo, or Milan (or all three cities simultaneously).

Specialized telepresence environments will be developed that will make possible global collaboration in settings as diverse as virtual physics labs, recording studios, dealing rooms, and neurological operating rooms.

The technology will have good, bad, and unintended consequences and will revolutionize the world in ways that we can only begin to speculate about at the dawn of its inception.

It will accelerate commerce, globalization, outsourcing, and the creation of wealth.

It will dramatically impact the airlines, hotels, global network providers, financial markets, advertisers, and Hollywood.

It will revolutionize, among other things, global corporate governance, education, entertainment, medicine, diplomacy, home schooling, politics, warfare, and pornography.

It will dramatically expand the geographies where knowledge workers can live and work while simultaneously shrinking the world around them.

It will be a trip...

For the longer answer and more details on the coming telepresence revolution the Lab will be releasing: Telepresence, Effective Visual Collaboration, and the Future of Global Business at the Speed of Light in late May. Please check out our teaser video if you haven't already and subscribe to our newsletter, The Art of Productivity to secure a copy upon publication.