|
|
ProjectsDesktop to Desktop Video© 2010 Max Lent
The problem was how to introduce new Internet technologies to computer phobic employees. This is an example of how I leveraged the interest of children to convince their parents to adopt a new technology; desktop to desktop video conferencing. Much to my amazement, not being a parent, I was chosen by a colleague to head the Take Our Daughters to Work campaign. The campaign was a lot work, but the results were splendid, I was told. The campaign gave me the opportunity to show off technology that I knew would be valuable to company employees and provide the children with a hands-on demonstration. The technology was desktop to desktop video conferencing. What I believed the technology could do for our company was reduce travel, thus saving money. The technology also had the promise of improving working relationships between the company and salespeople in the field. A similar project at British Petroleum had greatly increased trust between remote employees and employees located in their main offices. To make the desktop video conferencing interesting for the children, I contacted the National Science Foundation to see if they had any field scientists using video conferencing. They did, in the Antarctica. Many emails later, I set up a video conference an Antarctic scientist to coincide with Take Our Daughters to Work day. To make the technology more enticing, I used a standard issue company notebook computer and a dial-up telephone modem. This equipment was already in use by salespeople and field representatives. All that was added to make video conferencing work was an inexpensive video camera and microphone. The software was NetMeeting which was free from Microsoft. Knowing that the children had not experienced anything like this before and would not know what to ask the scientist, I wrote out questions for them to ask ahead of time. The children and the scientist had a great time seeing and talking with each other. What was more important to me was that the children were accompanied by their parents. The parents intensely looked over the shoulders of their children to examine what was going on. Curiosity got the best of them. I was barraged with questions about how I was able to accomplish such a feat. Using a script that I written for the event, I explained how easy it was use the technology and how it could be used within the company with many benefits. The day after, our IT team started receiving calls from people throughout the company requesting desktop to desktop video conferencing. The concept that desktop to desktop video conferencing was easy use and cheap spread throughout the company like a virus. Once the technology barrier was broken, employees began to look for ways to leverage desktop to desktop video conferencing for the benefit of the company in ways we could not have imagined. The children who attended the demonstration will likely still remember seeing and talking to a scientist at the South Pole. Imagine how the image of our technology company was improved as the children related their stories to classmates who then shared the stories with their parents. The reason that this project was a success was that a colleague thought that I could achieve success with a project for which I had no experience or expertise. Given the challenge, I used every opportunity to make the project a success on multiple levels.
|
©1995- 2010 Max Lent
Add this page to your favorites
|
[ Home |
Services | Contact
| FAQ | Ideas |
Globalization |
News |
Search |
Articles | Links |
Travel | Contact Information:
Max Lent
|