System information

Why we love videoconferencing
Videoconferencing promises a richer communications experience than the telephone.
Rather than simply hearing a disembodied voice, you have access to all the nuances of
speech that come from face-to-face communication.
Why videoconferencing may never totally replace voice
There are some challenges to overcome, though, and not all of them are technical.
Consider this: using a plain telephone, people working from their home offices can
have business conversations, unshowered, in their underwear, feet on the desk, coffee
in hand—if they use a telephone. A similar video conversation would require half an
hour of grooming to prepare for, and couldn’t happen in the kitchen, on the patio, or…
well, you get the idea.
Also, the promise of eye-to-eye communication over video will never happen as long
as the focal points of the participants are not in line with the cameras. If you look at
the camera, your audience will see you looking at them, but you won’t see them. If you
look at your screen to see whom you are talking to, the camera will show you looking
down at something—not at your audience. That looks impersonal. Perhaps if a video-
phone could be designed like a Tele-Prompt-R, where the camera was behind the
screen, it wouldn’t feel so unnatural. As it stands, there’s something psychological
that’s missing. Video ends up being a gimmick.
Wireless
Since Asterisk is fully VoIP-enabled, wireless is all part of the package.
WiFi
WiFi is going to be the office mobility solution for VoIP phones. This technology is
already quite mature. The biggest hurdle is the cost of handsets, which can be expected
to improve as competitive pressure from around the world drives down prices.
WiMAX
Since we are so bravely predicting so many things, it’s not hard to predict that WiMAX
spells the beginning of the end for traditional cellular telephone networks.
With wireless Internet access within the reach of most communities, what value will
there be in expensive cellular service?
The Future of Asterisk | 589