Remote Trust
rediff.com article
Says a senior equity fund executive: "Many Indian companies are asking whether deals can be concluded through a videoconference. Our answer is that nobody will pay you the cheque until you see each other and physically shake hands."
The failure of the human race to adopt the internet as a trusted place of business is due, in my opinion, to an inherent disbelief in a medium that is more commonly used as a passive tool and one that lends itself inherently to fraud (enacting fraud is actually more difficult than protection from fraud).
We are so used to a paradigm of accepting fictional entertainment via image generating screens (television), hence the computer screen and all the possibilities of video conferencing are inherently not trusted as "real".
A deadly form of common cold (SARS) that would be relatively harmless were it not for international travellers may be the agent that changes our view. Customs may change to accomodate acceptance of electronic verification to establish trust between remote personnel as readily as a handshake.
It may not be "human nature" to accept this. But it may become human survival that dictates what is "natural" for business and what is not.
In the computer programming field, on-the-web delivery may not exert the same social pressure that physical presence does. But software development requires no physical presence. All anyone requires these days are results.
