Asynchronous Videoconferencing: A Hybrid Communication Prototype

This report introduces a hybrid asynchronous, distributed audio/video group conferencing system. One of the chief benefits of Internet communication systems is that they allow communicators to write messages when they need to, and read messages when they can. Researchers, developers, and lay citizens are increasingly familiar with one of the benefits of e-mail and online text conferencing systems: the ability to use asynchronous, store-and-forward and retrieve-ondemand technologies for communication. However, most theories of interactive technologies suggest that users would achieve more accurate interpersonal perceptions and more effective and efficient work transactions if all visual and auditory non-verbal cues were available via desktop communication systems. Synchronous multimedia communication technologies achieve this, but forego the benefits of store-andforward and retrieve-on-demand. The technological barrier has been in wedding asynchronous communication to the storage, indexing, and retrieval of sound and video. This paper reviews the literature on the costs and benefits of synchronous and asynchronous interaction, and fullversus partial-cue messaging that prompted development of the system. It also discusses the technological basis of a working prototype asynchronous audio/video conferencing system, including its facility for a non-linear indexing system that allows users to access a/v messages by order, topic, time, or participant subset. Validation tests for the utility of asynchronous a/v that are being conducted are discussed. These address the affective, co-presence, satisfaction, and effectiveness outcomes such a system provides.