ABSTRACT

Virtual Sociology - Designing the communication age

Mike Fraser (mcf@cs.nott.ac.uk)
Communications Research Group,
Department of Computer Science,
University of Nottingham

The advent of an exponential growth in global communication technologies means that geographical boundaries of social interaction are being removed at an equivalent rate. Asynchronous systems, such as the internet and e-mail, have become highly successful in supporting co-operation and collaboration. However, synchronous technologies such as video-conferencing and collaborative virtual reality have been far less commercially successful.

It has been argued that problems with real-time communication through computer systems stem from poor design for, and evaluation of, the ways in which people use them. This work outlines how interdisciplinary research methodologies, such as ethnographic social studies of situated action through systems in use, can inform the design of potentially collaborative technologies. In the case of virtual reality, such designs can improve intuitive human-to-human communication through computer-generated worlds.

Furthermore, it is proposed that results of studies of human collaboration within these technologies might also be applied to render explicit the underlying foundations of day-to-day interaction. Thus studies of virtual activity might also augment our understanding of the ways in which communication develops in the real world.