Today, I was sitting at an international business meeting online with six people from as many different countries. As I sat through it, I often tried to stand back with my researcher eye and to capture the real advantages I was having, compared to my hypothetical having met the same six people face-to-face in a university meeting room.

It was fascinating to realize how many aspects of running a business meeting online are true powerful advantages over a physical one. Many of them had never consciously surfaced in my extensive use of these technologies, as when you are using them, you are one with them. You don't see the process and you don't appreciate (unless you make a conscious effort) the differences that such a novel way of communicating and collaborating truly brings to the table.

This is what I noticed:

Pros:

• Each one has a personal presentation screen. Customized and personal. No need to lean or squint the eyes to see better what is on a distant projection screen. Very cool.
• Focus (if allowed and wanted) can be total. Participant, presenter and the content showcased can drive complete attention and focus. Much unlike what happens at a physical business meeting. In both places the skill of communicating and presenting information effectively is an asset that comes before technology. If you are good at it, technology can boost your talent. If you can't present technology is going to make it worst.
• Total privacy. Meaning: while you are attending the business you have almost total and complete privacy. You can dress as you like, sit as you like, drink and if you like even smoke throughout. That's quite some freedom.
• Orderliness. Though this maybe a consequence of us not being navigated with these technologies, or maybe because these tools are still a tad difficult to use, but fact is that during online business meetings things can be much more orderly. Conferencing technologies themselves can enforce one-at-a-time talking features or the need to "raise a hand" to get the microphone. In many situations this is extremely useful as it allows orderly communication patterns and the opportunity for each one to have equal space.
• Audio quality. You can see and ear each one of the meeting attendees with equal good quality. There are no close or distant ones, and the typical issue of not being able to hear those that speak low or who are on the opposite end of the meeting table vanishes altogether. Everyone is sitting on the chair next to yours.
• Artifacts generation. The richness of artifacts that can be generated in an online business meeting seem to be much richer, textured and re-usable than our traditional minutes. The fact that the meeting generates a full text chat transcript, audio recording, all ready to be re-used and shared in their native digital format, provides all of the participants with a much richer set of content tools than normally available.
• Multiple and parallel communication channels. In a virtual business meeting I can be exchanging valuable references with a colleague while the presenter is answering an issue to a colleague on which I have no interest. The moderator can distribute files or submit private suggestions to any of the other participants without anyone else being distracted or disturbed by it.
• Identification. While at some physical business meetings there are always people I don't know, have not met before, and whose name I don't know, at virtual meetings I can easily see everyone's name, photo and personal bio in just one click. I can also, as pointed out above, contact directly and privately the person and exchange with her without disrupting the flow of the meeting.
• Time extension. It is easy to spin off a subgroup into a dedicated email discussion list, YahooGroup or blogspace. From the event new channels can more easily be opened and initiated. Right from the virtual meeting those new channels can be started and used to maintain ongoing discussions on key issues. (See X-events too.)

Cons:

Less immediacy. When in a virtual meeting, there is (for now) less opportunity to be spontaneous, to interrupt someone else, or to utilize body language or face expressions to communicate in other ways beyond the verbal level.

Opportunity for much greater distractions. While there can be indeed total focus, unless skilled people manage the agenda, interventions, supporting visuals and content distribution, any virtual participant has a universe of opportunities for getting distracted if the meeting offers no clearly stated goals, monotonous long presentations and little space for involvement.

No space for unskilled presenters and unplanned events. While in a live physical business meeting the presence and character of a person can balance out for lack of basic communication skills, the technology world levels out the playground in great favour of skilled communicators. Missing body and much of the facial clues, it is who can best summarize and present their ideas clearly and succinctly that these real-time communication tools smile to.

Technology issues. Tools like this continue to be an issue in restricting somehow fluid, natural and spontaneous exchanges just because their presence and use requires so much attention and skill for the user. When technologies for virtual meetings will disappear in the background, and the use of them will be as natural and intuitive as saving a file or pointing your mouse to a button, then technology will be what it needs to be: an enabler. A door handle. A key.

I am sure I must have left many out. Especially from the "Cons" side.

What do you think?