BuddySpace Prof. Marc Eisenstadt Knowledge Media Institute, The Open University Enhanced Presence Management Thoughts as of November 2001

Massive/enriched presence (1) Presence is motivating (P2P growth), central (comms & location based services), & complex (context, devices, locations, intentions). Jabber = open source XML-based communications infrastructure, supporting dynamic presence detection and management (and enabling people/device/system/application inter- communication). Crowds present a qualitatively different kind of experience, i.e. massive scale is a positive asset to the end-user experience, rather than a liability.

Massive/enriched presence (2) Presence visualisation can provide a stepping stone to scalability and enrichment of ways to convey presence. Presence semantics can help us think about more powerful ways to convey presence.

What’s ‘massive’ Thousands of peers at once (asset, not liability) Quality end-user experience Large audience-participation webcasts Massively multiplayer cooperative games Instant Messaging based on ‘pure presence’ (BuddySpace)

Presence defined Availability (“I’m logged on for a videoconference”) Preference (“Only my boss can interrupt me now”) Capability (“My device can accept video calls” Characteristics (“Translate to French”) Location (“I’m abroad… urgent calls only”) The aggregated view of a person’s dynamically changing attributes Source: Dr. R. Chakraborty (Versada Networks), Jabbecon’01

BuddySpace Background Instant messaging is one of the fastest growing communication services ever Over 4 million new registrations/month Initially, high usage among teens, home users, and international Corporate use ‘taking off’ big

Location-based services... similar story According to Ericsson: 62% of private mobile users, 51% of business mobile users are willing to use location services Willing to pay $ $5.50 monthly

Chat & location are crucial in online games

Odigo: Buddy List, Filters, ‘Radar’

Objective: Catch the prey Prey is hired Teams –coordinators –hunters GPS positioining Location hints –decreasing intervals Communication –2 way SMS –Group messages

KMi’s experience KMi Stadium 5 years of ‘virtual classrooms’ ‘Remote telepresence’

Key thoughts/steps ‘Killer app’ / ‘Killer game’ misguided ‘Pure presence’ is what appeals to users ‘Dots on maps’ can scale up…. …filtering + smart clustering algorithm ‘Buddy list’ -> ‘Buddy Space’ Screensaver = inobtrusive!

First prototype 157,000 individuals (OU student database) Runs as standalone app or screensaver Let’s see it…

Real OU student database (157,000 students) Zoom maps grabbed live on the net…

Real-time ‘map grab’ Colour-coded filters ‘Centre of gravity’ clustering Post-code/national ‘force-fields’

Original data is only limit: can find your house! Your IP number -> latitude/longitude is automatic

Custom displays Geographical – high-quality maps (just licensed ‘Maps in Minutes’) Logical (e.g. corporate campus, ‘tower block’, etc.) ‘Artistic’ (Mexican wave, Graffiti wall, Tetris, etc.)

Possible uses OU / Virtual U: peer group visibility Corporate: who’s doing what? Parents: where are kids? Teenagers: my mates Games: search & capture, prizes, etc. Emergency healthcare Enhance dire rock-webcasts Plug-ins / value-added to ‘big 5’ (ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Odigo)

BuddySpace IM Lightweight ‘radar view’ ‘Pushed roster’ automatically constructed Custom maps Embeddable maps 9 screen-shots follow

Plain chat Embedded browser for custom ‘news flashes’ etc. Automatic roster construction during login = personal tutor group, work group etc.

Typical view of OU tutorial group Automatic roster construction during login = personal tutor group, work group etc.

Automatic map construction from user data

Smart inset chosen, depending on actual data

Map & faces are customised; dots display true status

Floorplan of KMi; Dots are those of interest to me

OU campus map

World, Europe, KMi floorplan all together

Marc’s personal ‘daily view’

Timeline view, e.g. which TMA?

Research Questions (I) ‘Low-cost power’: maintain simplicity yet add ‘powerful presence’ indicators? Scalability: Can our approach scale to distributed workgroups of realistic size? Added value: What extra benefits do our workers derive from the serendipitous interactions afforded by lightweight peripheral presence?

Research Questions (II) Automatic filtering: automatic roster construction and group visualisation without significant end- user investment? Visual Representation: What it the best way to display work colleague presence in a meaningful- yet-non-intrusive fashion? Semantics of match-making: What do we need to store about the research interests of colleagues in order to indicate their simultaneous presence?

Research Questions (III) Semantics of presence: ‘online’, ‘away’, ‘busy’ and ‘offline’ less useful than ‘now working on work-package X’, so we need to develop a richer presence vocabulary to reflect this. What should this vocabulary look like?

Research Questions (IV) Massively muliplayer cooperative games: Can we leverage ‘pure presence’ to create a ‘Mexican Wave’ effect? –Big numbers = asset, not liability –Remote audience = 1 st class citizen –Smoke-and-mirrors synchronization tricks