Video Mediated Social Interaction between Groups: Design Guidelines and Technology Challenges

This paper discusses results from research related to the use of television as a device that supports social interaction between close-knit groups in settings that include more than two locations, each location being potentially equipped with more than one camera. The paper introduces the notion of a framing experience, as a specific scenario or situation within which social communication takes place. It reports on the evaluation of some of the key attributes of social communication through semi structured interviews on the topic of a number of concrete framing experiences, with 16 families across 4 European countries participating. The issues identified through this study lead to the formulation of four design guidelines for the development of technology that could support such social interaction. The participants stress the importance of supporting excitement, engagement and entertainment, of high quality video communications, and of systems having the inherent flexibility of supporting and adapting to the unpredictable and reactive nature of human interaction and discourse. These findings were the basis for the statement of a number of hypothesized characteristics that a corresponding technology framework should have, and, in turn, allowed the formulation of a fundamental software architecture, whose main components are outlined in the paper. Finally the paper reflects on the impact the use of framing experiences, such as those described here, could have on strategy and policy for service providers and regulators.