Make HD video calls through your TV

If you want a better way to be connected with your remote family, Cisco now offers Umi telepresence.  Connect from your home HDTV and your broadband connection, and meet with distant family and friends for "the most lifelike, natural video communication available to cusonsumers today."  It feels like a window from your family room to theirs.  What a wonderful way for families and friends to stay--and be--connected--from afar!

Now "being together" is a whole lot better and richer--and fun.  When you can't travel to be face-to-face, now you can really feel like you're there for birthdays, holidays, and just any day that you want to be in touch with those that you love that are remote from you.

Check out this article and video about it and learn more. 

http://www.conferencingnews.com/news/32520

TechRepublic's "best app" list for Android, iPhone, and iPad

If you're addicted to your smart phone like me, you'll want to check out TechRepublic's favorites for Android, iPhone, and iPad.

Not only does the article below list the apps and show the widgets, but the article also explains why their favs are must-have apps.

I found two new apps that I am downloading today that I know I'm going to use a lot. Honestly, my smart phone becomnes more valuable to me every single day with powerful apps that make my life better! 

Check it out.  Great article.

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=5617&tag=leftCol;post-6264

Future iPhone and iPad may recognize you by your heartbeat

I was at a meeting the other day, and about half of the 20 people sitting around the table placed their smart phone on the table in front of them. All of us see this behavior in restaurants. We see it in Starbucks, in training sessions, at the local pub, in the lunchroom at work, at your office desk, and wherever people sit at a table.

Why do people put their smart phone on the table? They didn’t do it when phones were just phones. Is placing your smart phone on the table in front of you a status symbol? Is it a way to strike up a conversation with the person next to you who may or may not have the same phone? Is the phone on the table so its owner can see new tweets as they appear or who is calling while your ringer is silent during the meeting?

I don’t put mine smart phone the table. My phone has so much high-value information on it, like my contacts, application files, emails, music, tweets, movies, and more. If I lost my phone or left it behind, my greatest concern would be the security risk—someone else accessing my Contact and emails. I just won’t take that risk.

Lost phones are a huge security risk for every business. Most IT departments would have us input a password before we could make a call or access our files.

But Apple is doing them one better. They applied for a patent last year to have the phone recognize you by your picture through the camera lens. Or it will know you by the sound of your voice or even your unique heartbeat!

But let me posit one question. If you elect to have your mobile phone recognize you by your heartbeat, and your phone doesn’t recognize you, what do you do? Dial 911? Or go straight to the Emergency room? 

Here’s the source article:

http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/08/19/future_iphones_ipads_could_recognize_adjust_for_individual_users.html

Future Shock: Class of 2014 – See how this post-email generation shapes the future

In the movie When Harry met Sally, Harry talked about a much younger woman that he had been dating. Harry was trying to make conversation and asked her, “Where were you when Kennedy was assassinated?” The young woman looked back at him and said, “Ted Kennedy was assassinated?”

A generation used to be defined as 20 years. In today's world, a generation can be as few as four years. That means that a brother and a sister born four years apart share an entirely different experience of growing up and learning the world.

For the last twelve years, Beloit College has published its Beloit College Mindset list which defines cultural touchpoints that have shaped the lives of students that will be entering college this fall.

Check the link below to see the actual list. But here were a few that really caught my eye.

1. When you tap on your wrist to nonverbally ask someone for the time, don't expect the class of 2014 to understand. They don't wear wrist watches. The current time is posted on their mobile phone that is always with them.

2. They don't write in cursive.

3. They consider e-mail to slow, and snail mail and artifact of Jurassic Park.

4. The term "go West, young man" doesn't stop at California. Now it's young man and young woman. And West is West enough until you hit Asia.

5. They have hundreds of cable channels, but can't find anything to watch.

6. They have never seen a carousel of Kodachrome slides.

7. Their first computer, probably an Apple II, is now in a museum.

Enjoy!

http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2014.php

Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., Bridge the Distance, http://www.distance.com/

Connect to your WebEx Meeting on your iPod / iPad

Can it be true? Yes, there’s an app for that!

If you are stuck at the airport, in the taxi, or on a train and you want to join an important WebEx session, no longer are you relegated to just listening to the audio.

If the session is hosted on WebEx Meeting Center, you can …

1. See who’s attending the session

2. View Presentations

3. See Documents

4. See Screen Shares

With the tiny screen views on the iPhone, you can even zoom in to take a closer look. You’ll even see annotations that the presenter makes on the slides.

In addition, you can interact…

By voice – dial into the session or have WebEx dial you; mute your line if you like.

By chat – with individuals or the entire group.

If you are using Training Center or Event Center, you can’t connect just yet on your iPhone or iPad. And it’s not yet available on the Droid phones. But hopefully soon…. :-)

Wow! There’s an app for that, and I’m getting it. Here’s the download:

http://www.webex.com/apple/index.html?CPM=KNC-sem&TrackID=1021381&semid=sb971Wn0u_3889945346

Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., Bridge the Distance, www.distance.com

Which is best: Texting or Talking? The answer depends on your generation

“You’re fired!” No, that’s not Donald Trump. It was what a 45 year old manager was ready to say to three of his new hires.


The new hires were all Millennials (under 30). Instead of paying attention in meetings, they were actively texting and tweeting through their phones, which the manager considered very rude. The new employees never initiated a call to the manager on the phone. So the manager called them, but they never picked up their phone. So he left a voice message, but the response would arrive several days later—in email. The manager concluded that all three of the new employees just didn’t know how to communicate correctly at work.

These communication problems went on for about three weeks. Totally frustrated, the manager finally asked each all three into his office, one at a time. The manager then said, “You need to learn how we communicate around here. In this company, we use email and voice mail. Stop texting and tweeting in my meetings, or else.” All three quit that very day.

If the manager had understood generational differences in how Boomers communicate differently than Millennials, there could have been a much better outcome.

Millennials (teens-30 years old) consider it rude and intrusive to call someone on the phone. They feel that the phone ring interrupts whatever the recipient is doing at that moment. They feel it is far less intrusive to send a text message that makes a single light sound upon its arrival. With text messages, the recipient has full control over when to view and respond.

Boomers regard voice calls as conversations, which are important ways to establish and grow rapport. On the other hand, Millennials regard voice calls as more urgent, compelling, and overused. Millennials don’t want to tell you anything on a phone call that they can relay effectively in an email. If a Millennial wants to talk, they’ll always text first asking for a time to talk.

If you have Boomers and Millennials on your team, you have already experienced some of the challenges listed above. To resolve it, here are some suggestions:

1. Dedicate time for the Millennials to show you how they communicate. Get familiar with the new tools and how Millennials use them to be connected 24/7. Use texting, etc., with people in and out of work until you understand its value.

2. Ask the Millennials to figure out how to use texting and Facebook (or private alternative) to help your team be connected 24/7 in a virtual setting. Agree as a multi-generation team which technologies and practices to adopt and which to eliminate.

3. Follow the Japanese model. If you have a problem communicating with one other generation at work, go out to get a beer together after work and talk privately about it.

Technology will always evolve faster than our ability to learn how to apply it. Millennials offer us a quick leap into the future. We need to listen and adapt—or be short on skills for the future.



Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D. Bridge the Distance. www.distance.com

Get virtual teamwork right--now; Work swarms are coming

Are you prepared to say that virtual teams will become yesterday's way to work? According to Gartner’s predictions for the changing world of work, get ready for the next generation: Work Swarms.


Work swarms are a significantly more agile alternative to virtual teams.

Swarms swoop down to attack ad hoc problems, such as to detect emerging patterns in the marketplace or proactively create new designs are models . Unlike virtual teams where people may have worked together before, swarms are people that you tap into through your personal, professional, or social network. In other words, they are people that you don't know, but perhaps someone else does and has high confidence in their ability to contribute something of value to your team.

Discovery, innovation, teaming, leading, selling, and learning are the unique human processes that will become even more important in the future. Work that can be automated, will be automated. But Gartner says that the highest core value that people add is in “non-routine processes, uniquely human, analytical, or interactive contributions.”

If you think the line between work and your personal life is blurry now, get ready! In the next ten years, Gartner predicts “expectation and interrupt overloads” 24/7. We have only begun to experience information overload. We will be in a hyperconnected environment where more will be expected of all of us.

Virtual teams will still exist in the future. Gartner’s projections say they will become faster, more agile, and more focused in filling niche needs that will give a company a competitive advantage in a very different workplace. Virtual leaders and teams will need to up their skills again to make sure the human side of their work remains rock-solid strong—especially with people that they will never meet face-to-face.

Check out Gartner’s full article titled “10 Changes During the Next 10 Years

http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1416513

Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., Bridge the Distance, www.distance.com

18% of all US accidents may be caused by texting

Are we all so busy that we can’t focus on our major role behind the wheel: driving our 2000+ pound vehicles safely from one location to another?

Sober up to these startling statistics that are cited in an article referenced at the end of this post:

1. Texting may be responsible for as many as 1 million crashes per year—that’s 18% of all accidents in the USA. (The National Safety Council)

2. You are 20 times more likely to have a collision when you text and drive (The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute)

3. Your reaction time behind the wheel decreases by 35% when you text and drive (Transport Research Library)

4. Americans text and drive more than drink and drive. (Pew Research Center and the Federal government)

One out of four of us admit to texting while driving. The next time you take your eyes off the road when your vehicle is moving, just think twice. Please pull off the road!

http://preview.tinyurl.com/27jlw27

Submitted by Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., Bridge the Distance, http://www.distance.com/

TELEPRESENCE – It’s not just a new name; it’s a new generation of technology!

by Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., http://www.distance.com/

For years, videoconferencing used to be dubbed “the next best thing to being there.” For a couple of decades, it was—but no longer. Telepresence is here, and it is an amazingly powerful improvement. If you have a medium to large size business and are not enamored by videoconferencing, it’s time to check out telepresence. Telepresence is not about putting a new name on an old technology; rather it’s about an exciting new evolution that is in a class by itself. And, yes, it is a fantastic alternative to traditional face-to-face meetings.

How is telepresence different and better than videoconferencing? Here are five key ways.

• Gone are the days of the “Charlie Chaplin” effect, where your voice and movement were broken and jerky. Telepresence uses high-definition screens, large enough to relay life-size images of the people at other locations. Movement is natural, normal, and fluid. Since human images are life-size and the room is well-lighted, it is easy to see and interpret non-verbal cues accurately.

• Gone are the surveillance camera angles. Telepresence cameras let people project natural eye contact, which enhances the quality of human communication. In fact, it’s so natural that I found myself moving to shake the person’s hand at the end of the session—but that’s one thing we couldn’t do virtually.

• Gone are voices blaring out of a speakerphone, echoing off the walls. Telepresence speakers are positioned to make voices sound absolutely clear, close, and natural. Telepresence rooms even enable multiple people talking at the same time, without cutting out voices from other people in the session. In fact, in telepresence rooms, voices will correspond in location to the images. So someone that you see to your left will also have his/her voice come from the left.

• Gone is the room with the long conference table, where the image of other participants seem so far away that you can’t make out their non-verbal cues. Telepresence simulates a close, intimate round table, as one would find in an in-person meeting.

• Gone are the limits of overhead cameras and limited interaction. Telepresence lets groups share anything on the computer, interact on it in real time, and do just about anything people can do in a web conference. The emphasis with telepresence, however, is on the human faces and interaction. The emphasis in webinars is the human interaction, with faces taking a lesser role in the communication.

If your business is large enough to afford telepresence, it is worth seeing what Cisco, Polycom, and others have to offer. They’ve raised the bar, and it’s a high-value technology for global businesses that have the budget to afford the upfront costs.

--Jackie

How to Engage Millennial "Texters"

by Jaclyn Kostner, Ph.D., Bridge the Distance, Denver, Colorado

We've all heard the expression, there is no "I" in team. But if some on your team are Millennial-Texters (aka

 

Millennials--born 1982-2000) there must be a "TEXT" in team. If not, be prepared for significant conflict and other problems.

 

Millennial-Texters have grown up with technology. They've been educated through collaborative learning. They've mastered how to leverage technology to get tasks done and to stay connected with the people or information they need for success.

 

Millennial-Texters have learned that when there's a competition, everyone in the group wins a prize. So they've grown up to believe that they can accomplish anything. As individuals, they've never worked alone, and most have never failed. They constantly text through their smartphone and consider texting to be better and faster than a phone conversation. (That's up for dispute by those from other generations!) It's cool, they say.

 

In contrast, the Boomers and Gen-Xers in today's far flung businesses communicate, collaborate, and connect differently from afar. If they had their druthers, Boomers and Gen-Xers would travel to be face-to-face because it's more normal and natural. They will use email, conference calls, web conferencing, and other technologies, but they find each a poor substitute for being together.

 

Boomers and Gen-Xers have also discoivered big advanrtages of communicating virtually: They can HIDE. They dial into the conference bridge, put the phone on mute, and multi-task to fill their boredom. They have great technology, and they use it often. But deep inside, they struggle every day about how to be truly connected on a human level in the virtual space.

If your virtual team has Millennials, you've probbly already discovered the conflict between the generations. For success engage the Millenials' hearts and minds by focusing on the 4-R's.

1. Relationships. Don't be fooled when you see them go into a corner and text constantly. They're not isolated loners; rather they are connected socially in entirely new ways. Relationships are very important to Millennial-Texters. They want to feel like they are a high-value member of the team. It doesn't matter that they are half the age of others; they want to be a full participant in the interaction. Their goal is to tap into their creative brains and contribute fully to the solution. When the job is done, Millennial-Texters expect praise and recognition, both individually and as a member of the team.
2. Responsibility. Don't assign work to a Millennial-Texters as an individual. They're just not used to working that way. Instead, assign the work to the team. Be explicit about the results you seek, and then give them the power and support needed to get it done. Millennial-Texters don't want you looking over their shoulder; rather they expect to be empowered to get the job done, their way.
3. Respect. Millennial-Texters don't understand the corporate hierarchy, but they do understand collaborative teamwork. If you are higher in the hierarchy, don't expect respect because of your position. Millennials will give you respect when they feel you have earned it. The best way to earn it is by letting them contribute their best work and lending support when they ask for it.
4. Reciprocity. If you tell Millennial-Texters that they can't use texting, IM, Facebook, and other technologies that they have grown up with, they'll quit! Be open to the new ways to work that they bring to the team. There is a lot to be learned that can help others on the team get work done well. At the same time, help Millennials understand how you work. Then communicate about it to find a happy medium.

--Jackie

It's all about the magic!

Just before Christmas, I gave myself a present:  a Motorola Cliq--"the first phone with social skills " 

As I compare my old phone to the new one, it is amazing how much technology has changed in two short years.  With this purchase, I went from a small boring mobile phone that I would just as soon leave at home to a magical device that I take everywhere with me.  Not only can I make calls on it, but also I can watch live TV, play DVD movies, discover what's playing at the local movie house, drive or walk to an unknown address, find where my car is parked, see the weather at my next vacation spot, play amazing 3-D games, surf the internet--and so much more.  I can even click one app that tells me all of the restaurants and entertainment in the immediate area where I am driving. 

If you can dream it, guess what?  There's an app for that.

Coolest of all is the Shop Savvy app.  The app lets me takes a picture of a barcode.  Then it displays a list of the lowest prices for that product locally vs. on the Internet.  Another click takes me to a map of the metro area, and plots all of the specific locations where that product is in stock, along with the price.  A different click lets me find the lowest price from Internet retailers, too, right to the website to buy it.  This new smart phone is not just a phone; it's a window to the world!

All of us have the good fortune to be surrounded by amazing technology today.  In a click, we can we can choose from a whole array of technology designed to help us communicate, collaborate, and connect with people anywhere in the world.  What wonderful choices--interactive web conference technology, HD tele-presence conferencing, Facebook, Twitter, Linked-in, and so many others.  As a virtual communication expert, I am astounded by the fabulous choices.  I am equally as astounded at the great and poor ways that people use them.

Here's my point.  Just because we have access to great technology doesn't mean that it will help us communicate, collaborate, and connect effectively in the virtual space.  How people USE the technology is what makes it magical.  Magic is what this blog is about--how to use a wide variety of virtual technology to connect on a human level with people anywhere in the world.