Video Collaboration Tools
Recognising the diverse needs of our users, ARCS supports a range of collaboration tools and is well placed to advise on what tool is appropriate for a particular role.
These allow researchers to talk face-to-face, either singly, or in groups- even if the participants are in different countries. Furthermore, there are applications which are included as part of these tools that allow the display of presentations, for example, so that users can also display data or other information, so that recent findings and results may be shown and discussed in an in-depth and collaborative manner. Indeed, there have been distributed musical performances undertaken via videoconference...
There are many benefits to using such tools for meetings, including
- no need for expensive or time-consuming travel, epecially when considering international collaboration
- meetings can be called on an ad hoc basis, so they may be held when required, not just when feasible due to time constraints, etc
- enhanced generation and development of ideas when there is regular and casual interaction between colleagues
There are a number of other applications in this category and ARCS is currently investigating their use. ARCS has established a Video conferencing Web-based collaboration working group looking at a number of aspects of these tools, how they can be supported and improved.