In this article, the author talks about telepresence, a combination of real-time video, audio, and interactive technologies that gives people in distributed locations a collaborative experience that's as close to being in the same room as current technology allows. In a culture that's still adjusting to iPhone-size screen displays and choppy cell connections, it's a marvel to hold meaningful conversations with people who appear life-size and talk without speakerphone echo--but happen to be located somewhere else in the world. As Duke University (North Carolina), the University of Texas at El Paso, and the Los Angeles Community College District (California) demonstrate, telepresence systems can reduce travel while still helping people on campus forge and maintain relationships with their long-distance colleagues and contacts. But telepresence--even a modest installation--comes at a cost, and each of these institutions had to make a business case for investing in the kind of equipment, network infrastructure, and construction that the technology requires. (Lists 14 online resources.)