I saw something for the first time at the Las Vegas airport this week. I was travelling home after a hot, 110+ degrees, couple of days at the Nutantix .NEXT conference. I know what you are thinking. You saw something different in Las Vegas? Surprise, Surprise!!
As I normally do, I plugged in my head phones and listened to some relaxing music, today's choice was Turn Blue by the Black Keys. I know, not your typical relaxing music, but it is great to work to. So there I was completely in my programming zone. Nothing was distracting me. Something my wife can attest. When I am in my programming zone I am a total zombie. After about a half hour, I looked up for just a second, and I saw something I have never seen before.
I saw an older man holding his cell phone in one hand about arms length, like he was taking a selfie. But he was not taking a selfie. He was signing to the person on the phone. He was using one of the many video calling technologies that are available. I only saw one side of the conversation but it was so expressive. It was actually moving to watch him communicate with his loved one through this little screen in his hand. What an incredible sight to see. Technology being used to actually bring people closer together, instead of being that easy distraction in someone's hand. I am sure the creators of video conferencing where not thinking about how the deaf could communicate with each other, separated by hundreds of miles, but there it was happening right before me.
So I started thinking. The deaf have been using TTY services and technology to basically text each other for decades (started in 1960s). One of the things that was always missing was the emotion in the speech. Of course that was solved by emoticons which have become common place in text messaging today. My mother-in-law uses emoticons with every text she sends. Thanks Sheila. :-) But emoticons cannot show the expressions that I saw in the 5 minute signing conversation in the Las Vegas Airport. It was almost like watching an opera in a different language (Since I don't speak American Sign Language). So much expression and emotion was being expressed in that conversation. Something that a normal phone call or text just cannot show.
I am going to try and turn on my video camera more often when talking to people remotely. It will accomplish a couple of things. One it will force me to pay attention and only have one conversation at a time. (Think answering email during an hour long meeting). Second, I will get to see people's non-verbal communication during our discussion. Most emotion is shared through non-verbal communication. Lastly, It will give me an excuse to video call my granddaughter who lives 10 hours away, more often. So if you get a video call from me, answer it. Let's have a complete "emotional" conversation. Not just a non-emotional text or telephone call.
DWP
As I normally do, I plugged in my head phones and listened to some relaxing music, today's choice was Turn Blue by the Black Keys. I know, not your typical relaxing music, but it is great to work to. So there I was completely in my programming zone. Nothing was distracting me. Something my wife can attest. When I am in my programming zone I am a total zombie. After about a half hour, I looked up for just a second, and I saw something I have never seen before.
I saw an older man holding his cell phone in one hand about arms length, like he was taking a selfie. But he was not taking a selfie. He was signing to the person on the phone. He was using one of the many video calling technologies that are available. I only saw one side of the conversation but it was so expressive. It was actually moving to watch him communicate with his loved one through this little screen in his hand. What an incredible sight to see. Technology being used to actually bring people closer together, instead of being that easy distraction in someone's hand. I am sure the creators of video conferencing where not thinking about how the deaf could communicate with each other, separated by hundreds of miles, but there it was happening right before me.
So I started thinking. The deaf have been using TTY services and technology to basically text each other for decades (started in 1960s). One of the things that was always missing was the emotion in the speech. Of course that was solved by emoticons which have become common place in text messaging today. My mother-in-law uses emoticons with every text she sends. Thanks Sheila. :-) But emoticons cannot show the expressions that I saw in the 5 minute signing conversation in the Las Vegas Airport. It was almost like watching an opera in a different language (Since I don't speak American Sign Language). So much expression and emotion was being expressed in that conversation. Something that a normal phone call or text just cannot show.
I am going to try and turn on my video camera more often when talking to people remotely. It will accomplish a couple of things. One it will force me to pay attention and only have one conversation at a time. (Think answering email during an hour long meeting). Second, I will get to see people's non-verbal communication during our discussion. Most emotion is shared through non-verbal communication. Lastly, It will give me an excuse to video call my granddaughter who lives 10 hours away, more often. So if you get a video call from me, answer it. Let's have a complete "emotional" conversation. Not just a non-emotional text or telephone call.
DWP
