Travel book author Joe Sharkey was enjoying the Tucson desert air too much to trek back to New York to meet with his publisher.

Still, he had no choice. So he went.

But these days, the travel writer often avoids unnecessary travel.

He describes in a New York Times article how he does the next best thing: He goes on Skype video.

"Until about a year ago, I used to scoff at the assertion, long made by the videoconferencing industry, that its high-end technology, in many cases, negated the need to get on an airplane and travel to a face-to-face meeting. But starting early last year, sales began to rise, offering evidence that videoconferencing was, in fact, being used more often to replace some business travel," he said.

"I now regularly use videoconferencing. Often, my wife has to stay back East while I have the luxury of working in Arizona. We use a simple Skype Internet connection -- little cameras and microphones hooked to our laptops -- to hold nightly videoconferences, in which our two pet parrots in New Jersey also participate."

He describes his parrots as "early adapters, following the screen image, replying vocally, dancing with joy when motivated. They seem to get it -- except that the chatty African grey evidently believes that I am actually inside my wife's laptop and marches behind the screen to peck at it and get me out. I mean, they're birds, after all."