Communication Transformed?

Communication is being “transformed” by digital, internet protocol based networks. Or is it? I think it depends on how we gauge transformation of communication.

Skype presence

I was recently asked to sit on a panel called "Voices of Industry: Transforming Communication." The panel description set out the terms:

Communication is increasingly being conducted over IP data networks. Many companies are now developing and manufacturing a variety of products that are able to facilitate communication utilizing these data networks in a more cost effective manner. Panelists, including representatives from some of the top communications providers in BC, discuss current IP telephony strategies and solutions as well as the impact of unified communications and presence on communication. Learn about the new and exciting communication technologies each company is producing and how they are transforming the communications industry and affecting BC's higher education institutions.

Sounds pretty corporate, doesn't it? Here's what I said (more or less):

Communication is being “transformed” by digital, internet protocol based networks. Or is it? I think it depends on how we gauge transformation of communication. But more on that after some introductory remarks.

The title of today’s talk (“Voices of industry”), makes it sound like I wouldn’t fit. I am a university professor. What industry do I represent? Well, my industry is education. Not a small industry, actually, with $68 billion in expenditures in 2001 in Canada (5.1% of Gross National Income), $324 billion in the United States (5.6%), and well over $2.4 trillion worldwide (4.4% of GDP). I will confine my remarks to the higher education system, where many of these advanced communication technologies are being deployed first. That alone is about 1.4 % of GDP in Canada (about 1.7 trillion) or $16 billion. (A variety of incompatible sources UNESCO, Stats Canada, etc were used for those numbers, so don’t quote me. My only point is that education is big.)

Higher education is not, as most of you in this room know, just standing in front of students and lecturing. University professors are engaged in two additional endeavors: research and service. The service part is partly outreach (giving talks like this, for example), and partly the administration of a large organization. Research takes many forms but in broad terms includes gathering data, analyzing it, and communicating that with colleagues around the world. All three of these mandates - teaching, research, and service - are in a process of transformation and at least part of that transformation is attributable to digital computers and networks.

Two capabilities of digital networks are highlighted in the abstract for this panel: unified communication and presence management. To me, unified communication means getting all of your communication via a single (IP-based) network and, by implication, a much more diverse range of communication channels than we have generally considered the usual ones for office workers. My university, for example, supports a voice, video, text (chat), and data client called SofTEL. Presence means that the network facilitates, and the terminal equipment and client and server software enables, a real time update on whether you are present at the other end of the network and - increasingly - what you are doing, thinking, and feeling. A good example of presence is the “status” messages you can embed in your Skype account.

Neither unified communication nor presence management were feasible prior to the “dumb network/smart peripherals” era that we are in now. I will raise a few examples of how these things are being deployed in teaching, research, and service at my university.

Presence

Teaching:

Virtual office hours - students can “drop in” to a voice or text chat and know that the professor is present. Students can request help from a librarian, in real time, knowing that someone will answer (text chat).

Research:

Teams of researchers develop a sense of co-presence even when “the lab” is on multiple continents. Latest results can be shared instantly, and live audio/video chats can be used to plan research projects.

Service

Reach subordinates and supervisors using instant messaging built into new webmail platform. (Zimbra) Status of important functions (road clearing) can be updated in real time.

Unified communication

Teaching:

Deliver audio, video, and data from a lecture to remote or time shifting students. Allow remote students to participate in real time. (Elluminate Elive)

Research:

Conduct real time collaboration with remote instruments, databases, and documents while talking (e.g., Zoho writer, google docs, subethaedit).

Service:

High definition video conferencing for board meetings and other important events. Avoid travel, include more people, reduce scheduling conflicts, share more than audio video (powerpoint).

That all looks and sounds “transformational” but I think it is important to remember that at another level human communication practices and effects evolve slowly. We still like to spend time in each others presence, even if video conferencing is available as an option, and we still need to work hard on the content of our messages, even as the medium is changing.

Many of these new capabilities put an additional burden on the care with which messages are coded and decoded. As we write messages into our presence management interface or unified communication system, we need to think about how something might be received so that it isn’t ambiguous or misleading. We need to read them with similar care and considerable grace, since our misperceptions might be magnified by the new channel and our our reactions can be swifter and possibly more public than we realize.

As with all new communication capabilities, there will be a learning curve and we won’t all be at the same place on the curve at the same time. So let’s cut each other some slack on the reception, and exercise caution in the dissemination of these new unified/presence aware tools.