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[I96]I Wont Hurt You

by Michael Russell, Mic

People come in all different heights. Most short people wonder how it would feel to be taller. I don't know if tall people would ever want to be short, but maybe not as tall. Because we are such a visual society, something that can be so arbitrary as height, still plays a role in how individuals are perceived. So, can you imagine living in the world of the giraffe. The giraffe looks down upon everything but the trees. The giraffe is the tallest of all land animals.

The giraffe stands on average about 18 feet tall and can weigh in at more than 2000 pounds, depending on the animal. Even though the giraffe is related to the deer and cattle, it is listed in the giraffe family. There is only one other species in the giraffe family and it is the okapi. Though the okapi has a long neck, it is shorter then the giraffe. Ancestors of the giraffe appeared in central Asia about 15 million years ago, but the earliest records of the giraffe itself, date back about 1.5 million years.

Unless you go to the zoo, you won't be running into any giraffes in the US. Giraffes mostly live in Africa. Giraffes live near flat grassland and around trees and shrubs; places where the available food varies during the year. When it's dry they eat evergreen leaves, but when the rains come, they start eating the new leaves and stems that sprout on the trees. Males tend to eat leaves from the highest branches, while the female concentrates on eating closer to the ground. This is such a distinct behavior that a lot of people think you can figure out the gender of a giraffe, just by watching how they eat.

Giraffes spend about half their time eating and the other half is used to search for food, or trying to digest the food they've already eaten. Giraffes are active during the day and normally only lie down at night. Don't expect them to fall into a deep sleep, because they only sleep for minutes at a time. The giraffe must be a laid back animal; because the herds they run in are usually disorganized and there is no designated leader. Unlike most of Africa's plant eating animals, the giraffe can get all the moisture they need from their food, so they don't have to go searching for water.

Female giraffes usually start to breed when they are around 4 years old. Their gestation period can last for up to 15 months; which is one of the longest in the animal world. After birth, the baby is usually on its feet within 20 minutes. The females are fully grown by age 5 and the males by age 7. Young life is not necessarily a happy life for the giraffes. Adult giraffes are too large to be attacked by most predators, but the young can and do fall prey to other animals on the prowl. It is estimated that only 25 to 50% of baby giraffes reach adulthood. The giraffes' life cycle can be as much as 25 years in the wild and 28 years in captivity.

The giraffe is another one of those animals that seem to be losing the fight against hunters and other human activities that are reducing the land in which giraffes can roam.

Time, money, resources. Three elements which we're always short on; three elements we're always trying to save on. Yet, for our everyday work, in this cooperating, work-sharing world, meeting is a growingly essential need: meeting "face-to-face", with a chance to share and cooperate on the same data in real time, and interface with other people. A need which traditionally costs (unfortunately) a lot of time, a lot of moeny, and a lot of resources: we need to find the right place for the meeting, ask each of the participants to reach it, often facing traffic and delays, and py not just for their work, but also for their transfers.

Should we conclude that optimizing resources and this essential need to work together are incompatible? Should "meetings" alwats have these two faces, irrenounceable work tool on one side and colossal waste on the other?
Fortunately, not anymore. Among the wonderful Innovations allowed for by digital technologies, one is rapidly gaining ground and importance: videoconference.

When we say "videoconference", we don't just mean a glorified chatroom, or some sort of group phone call with added video: although it is true that both things may have some things in common with what we mean, a videoconference is far, far more.

Having a videoconference does not just mean, actually, putting all attendees in video and audio contact, exactly as if they were in the same room; it also means creating a shared workspace for them, a parallel of a "meeting room table" where material useful to the discussion may be brought to the attention of everyone and worked on by each attendee.
A useless complication? A technological "fad" which offers very little? On the contrary. Let us consider one of the best success stories of a leading Company in the field, Essedi, who built the audio-video teleconference system for the Regional Headquarters of the Civil Protection in Friuli Venezia Giulia, in the north of Italy.

The new system that has been implemented allows to have all the data streaming in from peripheric stations converging on the Operating Room. The effect for operators is that of a total immersion in the emergency they're managing; this is because videoconference does not just allow simple communication between distant operators, but also directly shared analysis of all incoming data, and evaluation of the actual damage as shown on streaming video. All this leads to a far more organic crisis management. A result which definitely should cancel the perception of videoconference as a "manager toy", as too often happens with advanced technological systems like this one.

What remains to be told is how a system like this can be useful in a normal Company, which surely does not rouitinely face emergencies of the magnitude and gravity that civil Protection is familiar with. Well, to put it briefly: in all those cases where a direct, productive meeting between physically distant professionals was needed, the traditional solution was expensive both money and time-wise: arranging for them to actually meet in person. Now, meeting - and we mean really meeting, with the ability to talk, share and analyze data and graphs at the same time, in a way that a phone call could never allow for - has become as simple as just sitting at one's desk and activating the videoconference terminal.

Article Source : Pg. 23

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Both Michael Russell & Essedi Videoconferenza are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.

Michael Russell has sinced written about articles on various topics from Celebrities, Dieting and Diabetes Treatment. Michael RussellYour Independent guide to . Michael Russell's top article generates over 2240000 views. to your Favourites.

Essedi Videoconferenza has sinced written about articles on various topics from Pets. is specialized in videoconference systems, and audio-video systems.. Essedi Videoconferenza's top article generates over 2400 views. to your Favourites.