We live in an age of information overload, significantly facilitated by the Internet. Anyone from almost anywhere can send, access, and post information across the globe in a matter of seconds. As applications and technologies continue to evolve, our ability to leverage the Internet will continue to impact the way we work and live.

The ubiquity of media connectivity also generates understandable worries about losing the benefits of face-to-face collaboration and “the human touch.” Without question, people will continue to gather and meet for business, social, and family reasons. This is in our cultural and biological DNA and will never change. Millions of people around our world dismissed aspects of email, social media, or even cell phones decades ago, only to eventually understand how they complemented or improved existing practices and connections. We should adapt and use new technologies when they serve our common interests and humanity.

A new-generation technology prompted the authors to write this book, a technology that, like social media and email before it, can become a part of the daily lives of millions of people. That technology is telepresence, the next generation of videoconferencing technology. Telepresence uses the Internet to transfer conference calls as well as high-definition images and presentations. It can provide life-size images and surround sound and can thus create the illusion that all the attendees are in the same room.