Social interaction regulation in virtual web environments using the Social Theatres model

Nowadays virtual communities are spread all over the web, providing users a cyber-place to share a common purpose and interact with each other around the world. These environments face new challenges in order to provide their users with better tools to interact and fulfill the environment´s goals. In this context we propose a model to create regulated interaction environments based on the theater metaphor: the Social Theatres. A multi-layer software architecture (ASTeaS) was developed to support this web-based interaction model, allowing easy construction of such social interaction spaces and adaptation to users´ devices. In this paper we discuss the usage of interaction regulation in virtual environments supported by the Social Theatres model, evaluating the users interaction in case study scenarios.