Social theatres: A web-based regulated social interaction environment

Abstract

The growth of the Internet and its associated technologies did open space for a new type of human interaction: virtual, social interaction environments. The introduction of regulated interaction in these virtual interaction spaces may be a solution towards their organization and inherent increased credibility. In this paper we propose a model for interaction regulation and control for virtual, social interaction spaces, called Social Theatres. A multi-layer software architecture was developed to support this web-based interaction model, allowing easy construction of such social interaction spaces and adaptation to users' devices. This paper discusses the advantages of regulated interaction, addresses the Social Theatre metaphor and presents the software architecture for the implementation of these regulated social interaction spaces. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2007.