Collaboration and shared virtual environments - from metaphor to reality

This chapter proposes a framework for handling the technologies of networked collaboration. It is suggested that the information appliances and wearable computers that will soon dominate our lives will lead to a major 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 global sustainability. They replace the unsustainable consumer product lifestyle 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-contained tasks to becoming a persistent portal to the universal information ecosystem. Thus the research issues in HCI are shifting from the ergonomic and perceptual to the longer-term cognitive level. Unfortunately our thoughts are not locked to the PC at this ergonomic level, so future applications will require a much deeper appreciation of the human life cycle. An earlier example is television. This brought a window on the world into every living room. Even now its fundamental cultural impact is poorly understood. Community values have shifted. Children understand the wider world better than their parents did, but richness of external variety may be acting as a barrier to appreciating the cultural depth of their own community. It is possible that the efforts are advantageous. Believing that all humans share the same fundamental ethical values seems to be preferable to rejecting other cultures as sub-human or even non-human. Experience in a number of EC research projects on collaborative technology for manufacturing and construction has led to a potential conceptual framework for finding and applying information. This includes a "People and Information Finder" for obtaining the raw material and a "Cycle of Collaboration" or "CyColl" for characterizing the way this material is used individually, competitively and collaboratively (see Figure 18.3). The CyColl indicates how established user interface metaphors might mature and eventually disappear within the new enhanced reality. The ultimate objective is not longer telepresence at one other place or virtual presence within an information structure. It is to enhance the reality of the local community by adding those aspects of the global community that encourage collaboration, equity, fulfillment and quality of life.