Prince Charles has pioneered a new way to telecommute: "Beaming it in" as a holographic image to reduce carbon emissions.  He has now joined the group "Girls Aloud" in being one of the first humans in the world to be projected as a holograph to another location.

The expression "phoning it in" is usually associated with making a minimal effort. But thanks to new technology and a changing climate, phoning it in - or better yet "holographing it in" may be environmentally preferable to actually showing up at important events ... at least that's the way Prince Charles sees it. According to The Guardian on January 22, Prince Charles "beamed it in" when he delivered a keynote address at an energy summit in Abu Dubai as a holographic image.

The technology, developed by CISCO Telepresence, allowed the Prince to attend the summit as a hologram, where he was able to answer questions,  without actually being there.  Talk about telecommuting! Apparently the technology has been around since November. The first event was beamed from California to Bangalore India on November 15, 2007. You can see a demonstration of it at the New York Times web site, or a low resolution video of Girls Aloud strutting their holographic stuff

So why Prince Charles?  Apparently His Highness has received significant blowback in the media for dumping an estimated 20 tons of carbon into the air after using a jet to accept an award for environmentalism (a typical commuter car will dump about 6 tons into the atmosphere in a year).

What next? Holographic weddings? Holographic parties in exotic locales? What about the commercial possibilities of holographic movies?

Personally I can't wait. Travel to Abu Dubai is so expensive these days. But in the meantime, I'll reduce my carbon footprint the old fashioned way: I'll use the Carbon Footprint Calculator and avoid jet travel.

Come to think of it, I may also send away for UCAN's FREE 28-PAGE Guide on how to save gasoline which is sponsored by UCAN's Cheap Gas Locator service.