Future directions of the conferencing and collaboration field

In this paper, the authors discuss fifteen semi-structured interviews carried out in 2010 with international industry experts and thought leaders within the conferencing and collaboration (C&C) field. The interviews focused on 5, 10, and 15-year time frames, and sought to elicit predictions on the components and services of future C&C platforms, as well as organisational issues such as the likely impacts on business value chains. The authors performed Affinity Diagramming / KJ Analysis in order to assess common themes and impose structure on the information gathered in the interviews. Themes included ease of use, improved presence/social context, formalised social networking capabilities, virtual worlds, remote interactive tools, meta-knowledge / context capture, identity and trust, and key barriers to C&C uptake across organisations. Pre-conditions for maturation of the field include the emergence of interoperability and standards, and the development of corporate education policies.