Gates Package — page 1115

rooms, live transcription, and alternate viewing options are now standard across most teleconferencing services. Users are just beginning to take advantage of the rich features available to them. For example, I've started using the chat function in many of my virtual meetings to add comments and ask questions. When I meet in person now, I miss the ability to have this kind of high-bandwidth interaction without distracting the group. Eventually, digital meetings will evolve beyond simply duplicating an in-person meeting. Live transcription may one day allow you to search for a topic across all meetings at your company. You might be able to have action items automatically added to your to-do list as they're mentioned and analyze a meeting's video recording to learn how to make your time more productive.One of the greatest drawbacks of online meetings is that video doesn't let you see who is looking where. A lot of the non-verbal exchanges get lost, and it eliminates a human element. Moving from the rectangular squares to other "seating" arrangements makes things a bit more natural, but it doesn't solve the loss of eye contact. This is about to change as we move participants into a 3D space. A number of companies--including Meta and Microsoft--have recently unveiled their visions for the "metaverse," a digital world that both replicates and enhances our physical reality. (The term was coined by Neal Stephenson, one of my favorite modern science fiction authors, in 1992.) The idea is that you will use a 3D avatar--a digital representation of yourself--to meet with people in a virtual space that mimics the feeling of being together in real life. This feeling is often referred to as "presence," and a lot of tech companies have been working on capturing it since before the pandemic started. When done well, presence can not only replicate the experience of an in-person meeting but enhance it: Picture a meeting where engineers at a car