Collaborative and Distance Communication

   There was this idea years and years that someone could through the power of science be able to communicate to another individual or group of individuals face to face while being in a different location. Maybe a different room, town, state or even country. But then the science movies got us thinking about face to face communication with people not even on planet earth. This is of course the science fiction in our pre-1950's discussion but then we hit this technological boom within a half century and the conversation became not only that of when it would happen but how could it become more effective and what would be the farthest reaches of these interactions?


    As of right now those communications are possible through a variety of sources and different media. In fact the most fascinating of recent communications amongst some of the millennials occurred during an episode of The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. In one of the bits that he did on the show he had one of the astronauts on the International Space Station read some of the cards or jokes they would be doing. How would they do this? Via Skype!

   At last, this crazy face to face communication is now possible! Obviously the technology isn't brand new, especially not to our generation but just imagine how amazing it would be to see this going on 50 or 60 years ago. The specific medium that is particularly impressive to me would be Skype itself. This is a platform that allows face to face calling on both a laptop or mobile device. Having a Skype is putting you at a few quick clicks away from anyone anywhere Earth's direct influence.

    Dean Anthony Gratton talked about additional powers Skype now offers as he listed five of the reasons Skype has become even more awesome in 2015 and one of the reasons was its new translator feature. Allowing an open dialogue between two parties and breaking that language barrier just opened a whole new world of connections and possibilities.

  Business Insider in an article related to the moment Microsoft took over Skype there was a small piece of the article that shared an interesting statistic. That about 40% of Skype usage is through video. Of course this article was written back in 2011 and they predicted that it would keep growing. The obvious assumption to be made would guess that number has since risen.

   While technology keeps growing those who will be able to access it will continue to grow and that is the beauty of a technological boom, most of us will get to take part in it one way or another.