How do we bridge the distance that screens put between us and make remote interactions more personal?
The COVID-19 pandemic forced (or perhaps merely accelerated the inevitable) seismic shift towards remote working. It showed how unsustainable – and in many cases entirely unnecessary – it was to write off large portions of each working day to commuting. It is little wonder, then, that as life begins to return to “normal” many of us find ourselves questioning the financial, environmental, and psychological costs of traditional work environments, and gravitate towards new setups which are either hybrid or entirely virtual.
Yet remote working has a prominent “Achilles Heel,” in that most videoconferencing tools and solutions fall well short of the engagement, clarity, and security necessary to create meaningful connections and maximize productivity and creative interactions.
As post-pandemic life returns to something like normality many of us find ourselves questioning the financial, environmental, and psychological costs of traditional work environments Click To TweetThere are some who yearn to go back to the office due to that lack of a human connection, and business owners and leaders are looking for a middle ground to bridge the two and create a hybrid work environment that fulfills everyone’s needs and lead to better productivity.
That is the problem that drives Raviv Nadav, Founder and CEO of Kinetx’ Kino, a platform that he believes could become the solution that bridges the gaps between hybrid work and a remote virtual work environment.
We're gravitating towards new setups that are either hybrid or entirely virtual Click To TweetAccording to him, the Kino video space platform is capable of supporting human connection by creating virtual conversations that feel much more personal.
“Human interaction is organic and personal. Video communication should be too,” says Nadav, pointing to the video below as an example of how his platform enables those personal connections to happen in a natural way, much as they would in real life.
“Social interaction is predominately filled with many conversations happening at once,” he explains. “It’s not some rigid experience where only one person is permitted to speak at any given time. Instead, when a person walks into a crowded room, there is a hum from all the conversation. They can choose to join a group, say ‘hello,’ focusing their attention. As time goes on, they can leave and focus on other individuals or conversations.”
Kino replicates that fluid environment where participants can communicate and shape their virtual experience as they see fit. The tool’s streaming technology allows for a more natural human experience. While others offer a “telephone conference with video” model, Kino is a video space where distance is perceived by manipulating the audio and video of participants that are in the background.
“We developed a focus feature in which the user gets to choose who they like to focus on. Others’ (unfocused participants) video gets smaller and to the side and at 5% audio level. The experience of having focused conversation with other users in the background gives a sense of an in-person gathering where people can roam around and talk to each other freely, just through video,” he says.
So rather than sending a text message to someone and waiting for a response, one can just hop into their colleague’s space and start a conversation with a full face-to-face experience.
“Remote work like we have today is very disengaging as the only face to face option because video conferencing services are glitchy and awkward. There’s no personal feel of talking to someone and really connecting. Chats and casual calls just don’t cut it. As an employer, I love being in touch with my team, seeing their faces and having those laughing moments at work where we just hang and chat. Well, we at Kinetx Co, do it remotely through our Kino platform where we can engage in one-on-one conversation but still have the ambience of an office. We work remote – but never alone.”
And that is the utopian picture that he paints of the techology’s potential to bring people together, rather than keeping them apart.
There are some who yearn to go back to the office due to that lack of a human connection Click To Tweet“Since the 1960’s we have had the trend of the Global Village, where all parts of the world got interconnected and, in a sense, unified. I think our economy and society is getting there,” he says referring the fact that his own team is dispersed all over the world but routinely shares the same virtual office space on Kino. “We should remember technology is an “add-on” to our lives but it should never replace the small joys in life like meeting one another in person,” he says, adding that we’ve never before been able to connect the way we are able to today.
Human interaction is organic and personal. Video communication should be too Click To Tweet“As technology evolves, and we with it, new opportunities arise, and tools for real-time communication like Kino can push the global market to the next stage of international hiring and collaborating, thus distributing wealth and perhaps expediting human evolution to the next step. Working as one has always brought great achievements in the past. This is no different. We’re simply Better Together.”
Alice Bonasio is a technology journalist, communications consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.
