The Communication ContinuumThe Communication Continuum

One can look at each communications service and analyze it based on a set of four parameters: Bandwidth, immediacy; direction and participation.

Last week we held our annual RADVISION summit in Israel. This time, the theme was Unified Communications. For some reason, I was asked to give a keynote presentation around social media. I made a decision to link the two--UC and social media--in my presentation, and came up with a very interesting result:

Beyond Unified Communications: The Continuum of Communication TypesView more presentations from RADVISION Ltd..

During the keynote I explained the thesis I developed of a communication continuum--a way in which one can look at each communications service and analyze it based on a given set of parameters:

1. Bandwidth--how much bandwidth does the service require? 2. Immediacy--how soon do people expect to listen, look, read or respond to the "message" 3. Direction--in what direction is the conversation flowing? Is it in one direction only or is it bi-directional? 4. Participation--how many people are participating and in what ways?

You can probably devise your own set of parameters, but for me these work rather well: Bandwidth usually deals with the constraints I have over the conversation I want to have; Immediacy indicates how fast I want the response or acknowledgement to arrive; Direction is about the need to get a response or have a conversation going at all; Participation deals with how many people I want in the conversation.

When I have something to say to someone, I analyze it with these four parameters in mind (something done automatically and without any real awareness) and then select the service to use accordingly--a video conference call, a voice call, a text chat or even a tweet. There's a whole set of services that I can use these days that weren't available to me a few years back.

While we bloggers love to declare the death of some technology or trend and then crown a new king, I don't really believe we're going to see email fading away, desktop phones vanishing, phone calls replaced by video calling, or airplane companies bankrupting because of telepresence. Our use pattern, that is the percentage we use each of them out of our shrinking time, will certainly change but we will still be using them all.

To me? The more communication the merrier. So keep on working on that communication continuum--look at what pieces are missing and develop them. I want more options and more flexibility.

* You can find the presentations of the Technology Track of the summit, including my presentation here.One can look at each communications service and analyze it based on a set of four parameters: Bandwidth, immediacy; direction and participation.