But wait, you’ve heard that said about video oriented communications your whole life—it’s an enabling technology that will reduce travel expense and raise productivity by canceling the effect of distance on personal interactions. Waves of video telephony solutions over the decades have had these claims repeated; why have these technologies been so slow to mature and take hold?

No matter how useful they are, many new technologies require a long time to become accepted. The rate at which a new technology is embraced is sometimes called innovative diffusion, and the rate of diffusion is only partially based on the technology’s technical merits. Most of us are very familiar with Everett Rogers’ S-curve of technology adoption. (For those who aren’t, Roger Clarke has compiled a great summary.)

In the case of video communication, I think there is a basic cultural issue to consider. Despite the clearly articulated business benefits of, for example, videoconferencing, the public has never really accepted it. Remember, video telephony has been with us in one form or another since it was first demonstrated at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York. Issues of privacy and self-consciousness have often been cited as barriers to broad acceptance.

That bias against video communication is fading, however. With the ready availability of cheap webcams, the pervasive nature of video-enabled instant messaging (IM) programs, and the rapid proliferation of Internet-based video services and streams, the public is rapidly embracing video as a desirable personal communication medium - especially the youthful audience. This optional video channel can add a level of humanness to conversations that some tools—like e-mail and IM—have removed. Young people see video as a way to jointly experience things with friends who are remote.

But here’s an interesting thing: Although webcams and video conferences are good enough for personal communication and for getting remote collaboration teams started, and although they can link previously separate global resources, the picture quality associated with videoconferencing doesn’t feel good enough to replace face-to-face meetings. In many cases teams that form and begin their collaboration remotely find themselves compelled to gather in real life, actually erasing much of the predicted travel savings.

The good news is that, though today’s businesspeople find themselves traveling almost as much as before, their overall quality of life is improved because they can use new tools to stay in touch with their families at home. The power of the network moves in mysterious ways! And the realistic nature of TelePresence, which operates with high-definition clarity, promises to change the former dynamic and add even more satisfaction to the latter.

Other major barriers to adoption are technical in nature. Complexity, compromised audio and video quality, and cost have all conspired in the past to relegate videoconferencing to the specialized facility. Yet again I see amazing progress here that bodes well for the future.

The benefits of IP-based personal communication tools are unfolding rapidly. Collaboration offerings that draw upon more intuitive user interfaces, more powerful processors and compression, and the network’s emergence as a global service platform are transforming the video medium into a comfortable and accessible option. In some cases today it is as easy to place a video call as clicking an icon or dialing a phone number, and that is making it an increasingly attractive option.

The concept of presence, introduced to the mainstream through IM, gives us added insight into who might be available—and when and with what video tools. Presence increases the value and utility of video communication, just as it does on the WAN.

I predict that the increased cultural acceptance of video as an acceptable personal communications option, the technical improvements that allow video-centric collaboration tools to be more accessible and manageable, and the startlingly realistic experience offered by TelePresence are aligning to not only finally unlock the business potential of the video medium, but just as importantly improve personal interaction, experience, and quality of life for all of us.

Arthur C. Clarke famously observed, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” While that was the first thing I thought of when I saw a demonstration of this new solution, I think the real magic is how TelePresence finally lets us act human while we collaborate in global, highly effective ways.