Assignment 10: Julie Bai

I feel presence awareness is particularly relevant to video conference last Tuesday. Video conference added more presence awareness compared to phone, email and chat. Users’ ability to see others who are far away and hear them simultaneously, imitates face-to-face interactions and adds more intimacy to the communication setting. Also, the view of people’ face expressions, appearances, behaviors, and the surrounding environment adds contextual and non-verbal cues that can be helpful to communicate with others.

However, there are presence awareness issues when video conference substitutes group communication. Nguyen (2007) says that most video conferencing systems exhibit spatial distortions and consequent loss of gaze. As more people joined the video conference, there were some colored spots on Erik’s workspace that made it difficult to see. In addition, perspective invariance or shared and incorrect perspective defined by the position of the camera, made it difficult to identify who was gazing at whom. These issues degraded the quality of presence awareness that is crucial in face-to-face interactions.

There were also problems coordinating interactions since it was difficult to identify speakers. Other remote speakers always saw the whole group, and thus, it was difficult to be aware of each individual. Towards the end of the video conference, our technical helper focused the camera on each speaker so that other remote speakers can have better presence awareness of the speaker. Also, there is a desire for a visual image of remote participants (Mark et al, 1999), and at times, other remote speakers did not see or know who is present in our classroom. For example, the camera was never facing technical helper even though a big part of the video conference was to introduce the class about the system and how it works. In addition, speakers themselves need to be aware of showing their appearance to others. Often, Prof. Jeremy was talking to other remote speakers but was not in our screen since he was standing beside the technical helper. He needed to get closer to our class and check on the screen where the group was displayed to make sure that other remote speakers were able to see him.

Last but not least, students were aware that other remote speakers would not be able to discern each individual since the group screen only showed tiny face of each student. Also, the small possibility of having face-to-face interactions with remote speakers in the future may have influenced us to take the video conference less seriously. Some students (also myself) started multi-taking as they were participating in the video conference. They would use their laptops or talk with other people in the room. This awareness can reduce commitment to coordinating interactions with the other remote speakers.