9 " Being there " and the Role of Presence Technology

This paper uses the metaphor of "being there" to differentiate two basic modes of mediated presence. "'Being' there" refers to presence in a remote environment through sensory extension, and "being 'there" refers to presence in a virtual environment through sensory simulation. In "'being' there," users believe that they are in contact with a real, albeit remote, environment, and their sense of "being there" is affected by the perceptual fidelity they receive. In "being 'there'," on the other hand, users feel present in an environment simulated by a presence medium in the form of a mental model, and their sense of "being there" is affected by the realism of the simulation they perceive. The merging of "'being' there" and "being 'there'" constitutes a synthetic environment that combines both remote and virtual presence. A main argument of this paper is that telecommunications technology is useful for producing remote presence, and presence technology is useful for creating virtual presence. While the former seeks to make what is not (locally) present, the latter seeks to make what is not present seem present.