Collaboration and Shared Virtual Environments — from Metaphor to Reality

Abstract

This chapter proposes a framework for handling the technologies ofnetworked collaboration. It is suggested that the information appliancesand wearable computers that will soon dominate our lives will lead to amajor paradigm shift from network-centered to human-centered thinking.By replacing many material goods and travel experiences these``Information Society Technologies{''} will open the way to globalsustainability. They replace the unsustainable consumer productlifestyle of today with an ``enhanced reality{''} that includes tele-and virtual components that can be more fulfilling than the real thing.The scope of the PC user interface has expanded from self-containedtasks to becoming a persistent portal to the universal informationecosystem. Thus the research issues in HCI are shifting from theergonomic and perceptual to the longer-term cognitive level.Unfortunately our thoughts are not locked to the PC at this ergonomiclevel, so future applications will require a much deeper appreciation ofthe human life cycle.An earlier example is television. This brought a window on the worldinto every living room. Even now its fundamental cultural impact ispoorly understood. Community values have shifted. Children understandthe wider world better than their parents did, but richness of externalvariety may be acting as a barrier to appreciating the cultural depth oftheir own community. It is possible that the efforts are advantageous.Believing that all humans share the same fundamental ethical valuesseems to be preferable to rejecting other cultures as sub-human or evennon-human.Experience in a number of EC research projects on collaborativetechnology for manufacturing and construction has led to a potentialconceptual framework for finding and applying information. This includesa ``People and Information Finder{''} for obtaining the raw material anda ``Cycle of Collaboration{''} or ``CyColl{''} for characterizing theway this material is used individually, competitively andcollaboratively (see Figure 18.3).The CyColl indicates how established user interface metaphors mightmature and eventually disappear within the new enhanced reality. Theultimate objective is not longer telepresence at one other place orvirtual presence within an information structure. It is to enhance thereality of the local community by adding those aspects of the globalcommunity that encourage collaboration, equity, fulfillment and qualityof life.