Upon beginning a project like Smart Videoconferencing, there are many anxious moments spent wondering if a germ of an idea can turn into a book. As the book continues through its many stages, it becomes a community affair. Finally, it becomes a finished project that represents untold numbers of hours offered by people who can never be sufficiently thanked.
We have made friends through this process. Our anxiety was relieved when we came to realize the material we wanted to share was already being asked for by businesspeople around the world. The process of discussing videoconferencing made us feel as if we were on a new frontier—which in fact all users undoubtedly are! Some videoconference users are old hands at virtual meetings, but most are just beginning to learn new videoconferencing language that makes for particularly far ranging and exciting conversations.
To all the people who read drafts of this book, answered our questions, gave us feedback, advised us on technical issues, tolerated our schedules, and even our moods—which would not always be appropriate to share in a videoconference—we are eternally grateful. Every comment was carefully considered, and if we have made any mistakes, the fault lies totally with us. It should be noted that not everyone we talked with agrees with each other!
Our gratitude goes to Pamela Fedderson whose insight made us rethink every sentence in this book; Jeffrey Mishlove who continues to support every book project conceived of by the TMI author team; Stuart Cohen who read through several drafts of the book with incisive comments on every read; Terry Brock and Vin D'Agostino who sparked our creativity; Julie Gouldin and Simon Moyer of Tandberg; Jay Koenigsberg and Claire Millsap of Vexcorp ( Jay is a shining star in this new world of videoconferencing); Brooke Ysteboe of InView and Carole Hodges of WorldCom (who lent their advice and help on numerous occasions in hopes that our book will promote the field of videoconferencing); Todd Cadley at Sterling Hager and Nicole Burdette at O'Keeffe & Company; Karen Pugsley at Newberg High School in Oregon; Clare Richardson-Barlow who gave us numerous examples of how Generation X is currently using virtual communication; Bernie DeKoven, for wonderful and long discussions on the challenges of meeting planning; Leigh Levy and Peter Skovrup at Compunetix; Bruce Eaton at Pacific University for stellar technical advice; David Gold of Acoustic Communications; Paige Salazar, training director at InView, who really understands the challenges of videoconference meetings; Andrew Davis and Andy Nilssen at Wainhouse Research for straight and to-the-point statistics; Roompam Jain at Frost and Sullivan, who wasn't bothered by our incessant e-mails; our Australian friends Scott Page with Ipex Information Technology Group, and Clive Allen and Kimberley Winters, both with Telstra ConferLink. We also thank our TMI colleagues Bill Oden, Elcee Villa, Jennifer Schmicher, and Ralph Simpfendorfer. Our reviewers were mercifully kind in their comments and gave us tremendous feedback on our early drafts: Karen Lam, Bob Schiffman, Terry Linda, and Michael P. Scott. To the many people who wrote testimonials for us—thank you! Their comments are reprinted at the front of this book. Rita Rosenkranz, our agent, has once more guided us through the book publishing world. Our final thanks go to the incredible team at Berrett-Koehler. Steven Piersanti, publisher, immediately understood the significance of this work, and everyone on his team has been generous, supportive, and filled with ideas that have inspired us in our thinking about the virtual and the real world. We look forward to videoconferencing with them.
Special thanks to the Las Vegas Athletic Club for being open twenty-four hours so we could find a healthy way of relieving our stress after those late nights at the office and to the Red Rock Country Club swimming staff. They have kept that pool clean for us!