Martin, whos research is in the area of "burning plasma" physics, is waiting for his twelve hour slot to use the new International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). In the past this would have involved scheduling a trip to the ITER site in France. This evening he is notified that they will be ready to start his series of experiments in the morning. Checking in to the virtual control room from home he can see who is on site setting up for the morning runs. Video and graphical views of the machine are available and he chats briefly with the local operator.
In the morning Martin goes in to campus where he uses one of the collaboration spaces which is equipped with multiple displays and high fidelity audio and video conferencing capabilities. From his laptop he can conveniently control the capabilities of the room while he accesses data set from each run. There is space for local collegues to join him to observe the experiments.
Checking in again he sees that his fellow researchers from Princeton and Argonne are also in the virtual control room. He can also see the availability of the various support staff that are necessary to support the experiments including local technicians, I/T staff, and instrumentation staff. Advanced directory services allow people and data streams to be identified, located, scheduled and connected into a flexible communications fabric. He can quickly set up virtual meetings during the day to analyze results from prior runs, discuss modifications, and make changes in preperation for the next. Drawing in staff and colleages from around the world.
It's just like being there - but more like being everywhere. (too hokey?)
ITER background from Martin.