Networked multimedia support for informal collaboration

As part of a general research investigation into the use of technology in socially organised work at EuroPARC, the authors have, been studying the use of networked multimedia environments, or media spaces, in supporting work group collaboration. They have built a media space, the Ravenscoft Audio/Video Environment (RAVE), and used it in support of their own workplace activities for a number of years. Their experience has been that primary value of the technology has not been the explicit `desktop conferencing´ of that sort, but rather the way in which patterns of informal contact and passive awareness can be supported. These forms of communication are quite different to the traditional desktop conferencing model. They are often spontaneous and opportunistic, rather than prearranged; they are lightweight to initiate, and often involve little more than information sharing rather than being organised around an explicit task. It is important that multimedia communication systems provide support for these as well as more traditional formal and focused ones. This paper describes a number of aspects of informal communication which media space technology facilitates, together with some of the benefits and problems which accompany it