[LINK] Aussie 'Video Lifelines'

[Roger Clarke]

At 12:03 +0000 25/3/07, stephen at melbpc.org.au wrote:
>Roger .. what is more insecure regarding modern video-conferencing
>than any other Internet communications application? With respect the
>arguments against video-lifeline-services presented here seem to me
>to lack your usual intellectual rigor and may needlessly hinder initiative
>in this direction. A Lifeline service with both phone or net-video seems
>inevitable to me. Why not sooner rather than later? Lives are at stake.

The counsellor and counsellee need to both feel secure in the situation.

Why does a person choose online rather than real-world counselling?

In many cases, it may be because the counsellee is at least hesitant 
to expose themselves, and may be very nervous about it.  If that's 
the case, a text-only or voice-only contact can be much more 
attractive.  (But Jan put it far better than I did).

If it's because of physical remoteness, i.e. the infeasibility of a 
real-word meeting, then granted - visuals may be no barrier.

My words "counselling services would need to be text-only, or 
voice-only" over-state what I meant to say.  I'm not actively 
opposing the availability of vision, nor the two-sided consensual use 
of it.  I'm expressing doubt about its effectiveness in a lot of 
cases.

-- 
Roger Clarke                  http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

Xamax Consultancy Pty Ltd      78 Sidaway St, Chapman ACT 2611 AUSTRALIA
                    Tel: +61 2 6288 1472, and 6288 6916
mailto:Roger.Clarke at xamax.com.au                http://www.xamax.com.au/

Visiting Professor in Info Science & Eng  Australian National University
Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program      University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre      Uni of NSW