Karrie:
	While we met over iCom, it was still necessary to use email to
	arrange the meeting time, with several mails being swapped
	prior to the "date" in order to negotiate a mutually
	acceptable time for both of us.

	Karrie initially experienced some problems with the interface
	of iCom, but through use of our pointers which shared the
	screen space, we were able to talk through it, both of us
	pointing to what we meant if it wasn't clear to the other
	person. This was a very successful.

	We decided early on against note taking during discussion,
	because it meant breaking the visual connection with the other
	person.

	Two video windows of the other person were available to both
	of us, but I found myself almost exclusively looking at the
	close up shot of Karrie where I could see her facial
	expressions more clearly, and most of her hand gestures too.

	The slight audio lag resulted in either talking over someone
	accidentally, or waiting a second to make sure they had finished
	talking. This was pretty harmful to the natural flow of
	conversation.

	Not being able to see the other persons face clearly while at
	the same time seeing their whole body, resulted in a lack of
	awareness of body language.

	Karrie got most of the stuff about where I lived and went to
	school right, only making one mistake. I rushed through this
	stuff near the start of the conversation when we were both
	more nervous and  I'm surprised she remembered as much as she
	did.

	In her letter Karrie said I had been very polite, but I think
	it was more me just being nervous. Subtleties in mood in
	behavior can be easily missed in remote communication.

	Key points:
	1) I was very impressed with the way we were able to interact
	with our pointers on screen. The little arrows felt like an
	extension ourselves, so when we used them to convey
	information to each other on the iCom, and the circled around
	and guided each other, there felt like there was a stronger
	connection between us at that moment.

	2) I think being able to see as much of the other person body
        language (including facial expressions) is very important. It 
	makes for a far richer and more subtle communication
        experience.
	

Arianna:
	Unlike my meeting with Karrie, Arianna and I didn't settle on
	a firm time for meeting until a few hours before hand. Seeing
	as we both work in the same building, and didn't have to worry
	about time differences, this was practical.

	We sat next to each other at an empty conference table we
	found and just started chatting. The whole experience was a
	lot more casual than that over the iCom, where due to physical
	and temporal issues, along with technological constraints
	things were necessarily more formal.

	We decided not to take notes this time either, but
	because it would have felt like we were studying each other
	rather than having a conversation.

	Body language and facial expressions were a lot easier to spot
	this time around.

	Because we were not limited to views from video cameras,
	several times during the conversation when talk lagged we were
	able to look around the room and find something else to chat
	about. A poster, someones desk, whatever.

	Arianna got everything right about me that she wrote in her 
	letter. Maybe this was partly due to the more relaxed 
	atmosphere, and partly the more natural flow of our 
	conversation.