A Wider Net

This USA Today article predicts a tough year for air travel as astronomical oil prices drive up the cost of jet fuel and, of course, ticket prices. With higher tickets, fewer flights, and a total lack of reasonable customer service from most domestic airlines, we can expect a flood of requests for alternatives and augmentations to face-to-face meetings for a while.

We looked at this sort of thing 7 years ago after 9/11. We were able to quickly offer satellite, webcast, webconference, and distributed media solutions (among others) to those companies unable or unwilling to travel. The principal driver this time isn’t a terrorist event but oil prices. Considering how rare and limited a resource oil is, I’m shocked this hasn’t happened sooner. The good news is that we’re all better equipped to augment or replace face to face meetings than ever before. I will be writing about available solutions and techniques in the weeks to come. I welcome your input. Please send your ideas to awidernet at crameronline.com or comment here.

So far my favorite idea for ways to reduce travel is: Everyone walks or bikes to Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts, jacks into the web via wifi using their iPhone 3G (the one that doesn’t exist yet but supposedly has a second camera facing forward for video conferencing), and conducts a face-to-face meeting over Grande Iced Mochas. Whipped cream mustaches will be required for admission.