How to be in two places at once. Using do-it-yourself and free video-casting technology, last Thursday the famvin web team in New York made its quarterly report to the international leadership of the Congregation of the Mission in Rome. We left New York at 6 AM, met for hour and returned home for a 7 AM breakfast when the Curia broke for lunch. Cost: pennies rather than the usual air fares.
John Freund CM and Beth Nicol, the technical genius behind famvin, sat in front of a Mac laptop in New York and could see Fr. Greg, the Superior General at the other end of a long conference table in Rome with all the other members of the Curia.
In turn they could see us, projected larger than life, on a screen positioned at the other end of the table.
The only equipment they added to their desktop PC was an inexpensive camera that can be purchased for around $100.
The connection was made using the free internet telephone service called SKYPE. (The current version of Mac’s iChat allows networking up to 4 locations.)The connection was relatively stable with some occasional minor lapse in sound.
Long a tool in the corporate world with substantial technology budgets, the possibilities are limited only by one’s imagination.
The major downside we experienced was missing the opportunity for some fine Italian meals. But the lack of jet lag made up for it.
