The value networks list serve has raised the issue of video conferences and how to make them more real. I am not sure that this makes sense, it may be better to recognise that the virtual world and reality are different and work in different ways.
In a video conference you have a lot of the visual clues, but they come in two dimensions (when your brain is expecting three plus other stimulation), peripheral vision is poor and even the best have a degree of stutter/time lag which focuses you on system not the conversation
On the other hand a video conference is rather like radio - your expectations are for oral communication without visual stimulation (which the brain finds comfortable) and you can also use instant messaging for those sotto voce conversations that always take place in a physical meeting.
We know that there are more aspects to human communication than visual and oral. I think it is best to realise that a virtual environment is different from a physical one. Attempts to replicate the physical in effect denigrate the virtual which has its own advantages in context. Its like the attempts to create avatar's that was popular in the early days, when the better systems (such as Babble from IBM) used symbols, more appropriate to the virtual.
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