VideoCafé - exploring mediaspaces in public places within organizations

This paper describes our studies of mediaspaces which are embedded within public places in organizations so as to examine the hypothesis that individuals might benefiteven when working apart- from opportunities for light informal interaction. A set of full-scale prototypes were used and assessed over extensive periods of time. The informal observations and reflection in design of these places have been supplemented by formal studies. We found that great care needs to be taken when designing these places from an architectural point of view. For some of the places, we would like to suggest using architectural features when altering the room rather than technology. In other settings, the artful deployment of communication media might be more effective.

[1]  DourishPaul,et al.  Your place or mine? Learning from long-term use of audio-video communication , 1996 .

[2]  J. Alexander,et al.  Images of Organization , 1988 .

[3]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  The VideoWindow system in informal communication , 1990, CSCW '90.

[4]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Iterative design of video communication systems , 1992, CSCW '92.

[5]  P. Dourish.  Different strokes for different folks: privacy norms in three media spaces , 1997, SIGG.

[6]  Ronald E. Rice,et al.  Evaluating video as a technology for informal communication , 1992, CHI.

[7]  A. Mehrabian.  Public Places and Private Spaces:The Psychology of Work, Play, and Living Environments , 1980 .

[8]  Konrad Tollmar,et al.  The Dwelling as a Place for Work , 1998, CoBuild.

[9]  F. Glen.  The social psychology of organizations , 1976 .

[10]  John C. Tang,et al.  Supporting distributed groups with a Montage of lightweight interactions , 1994, CSCW '94.

[11]  Steve Whittaker,et al.  The role of vision in face-to-face and mediated communication. , 1997 .

[12]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Portholes: supporting awareness in a distributed work group , 1992, CHI.

[13]  Paul Dourish,et al.  Re-place-ing space: the roles of place and space in collaborative systems , 1996, CSCW '96.

[14]  Robert E. Kraut,et al.  Patterns of contact and communication in scientific research collaboration , 1990, CSCW '88.

[15]  Marilyn Tremaine,et al.  Experiences in the use of a media space , 1991, CHI.

[16]  Sara A. Bly,et al.  Media spaces: bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing environment , 1993, CACM.

[17]  Konrad Tollmar,et al.  Supporting social awareness @ work design and experience , 1996, CSCW '96.

[18]  Steve Whittaker,et al.  Rethinking video as a technology for interpersonal communications: theory and design implications , 1995, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..