By Jack McDaniel
Being part of a virtual team is a reality for most of us these days. The nature of virtual teams presents challenges that our parents and grandparents never faced – chief among them the hurdle of feeling “out of touch” with team members. Staying connected in a virtual environment requires planning, effort, and the right tools.
Last week, a virtual colleague and friend brought a new connectivity tool to my attention. HP has unveiled “HP SkyRoom.” It’s been hailed as “Skype meets WebEx,” but that may sell it short. The tool was used by DreamWorks Animation during the production of “Monsters vs. Aliens.” HP boasts that its technology was developed in support of NASA’s Mars Rover program. Those are powerful bona fides!
In an excellent review from Creative COW Magazine’s Ron Lindeboom, the author asserts the following:
Well, let's just come out and say it right here: Live Office and iChat aren't Skyroom. Skyroom is Live Office and iChat on steroids after working in the gym with trainers. It also isn't one of the many freeware or shareware applications or subscription-based services like GoToMeeting.com.The differences between other collaboration tools and SkyRoom are significant. It’s not a subscription-based service, the software itself is affordable (under $150), its technical requirements are reasonable (Intel® Core 2™ Duo 2.33-GHz or equivalent processor with 2 GB RAM, a webcam and Microsoft Windows® XP or Vista®, and a broadband network with a minimum transfer rate of 400 kbps), and the visual quality is… well, what you’d expect from software used by DreamWorks. In 2002, I witnessed a demonstration of a “virtual meeting” conducted at a learning seminar. Dozens of cameras in two separate locations, each powered by a roomful of computing and processing power, “joined” two men in two offices hundreds of miles apart. It looked pretty good. Sure, it wasn’t exactly seamless, but it did look like two guys in the same office. Our collaboration tools aren’t there yet, but the industry is making significant strides, enough so that our children and grandchildren should find it both easy and natural to stay connected in virtual teams.
