Outside of corporate life, feel good press pieces have also made much about the use of video for keeping armed services families in touch with each other. This is on top of the fact that troops now have cellphones, which they can often use from anywhere in the world (when allowed) to call home. This in itself has amazed me the most as never before in any conflict have we kept so close to the troops by getting everything from phone calls, to pictures and videos sent by cell phones and other devices.

None of this is big news for 2009, but what I did find interesting was the Sunday New York Times article entitled “Living Apart for the Paycheck”, which details how the economy is forcing more and more couples to have commuter marriages, many times half a world apart from each other, in order to maintain a much needed two income household, or just to keep the family at their home base while one spouse takes a critical job somewhere else. It’s worth reading, if only to make yourself feel better if you don’t have a commuter marriage.

One of the talking points of the article was how video of any sort has really helped in making these relationships work, whether it’s just seeing the person, or playing a major role in bridging the distance when parenting. Video, particularly inexpensive offerings such as Skype are proliferating as a way to keep friends and relatives in touch. But now it seems that the faltering economy is pushing its use even faster.

Video and cellphones are just the start. Maybe in 2009 we will see a push for more unified communications applications into the home, beyond IM, then families apart would be able to collaborate on everything from taxes to homework. Hmmm. On the other hand, perhaps the distant partner might want to skip that 