1. Sociability
David Geerts
IBBT-CUO/K.U.Leuven

2. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
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3. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
3

4. Micro-communities and television
"Family and kinship are the perfect expressions of community" (F.
Tönnies, 1884)
Micro-communities consist of the people in our close surroundings
Partner
Direct family / household
Close friends
Television is a medium that plays a central role in these micro-
communities
Watch television with family
Organize 'movie nights' with friends Social uses of television
Talk about favourite television programs
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5. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
5

6. Social uses of television
Watching television is often a social activity
Lull (1980), Morley (1986), McQuail (1998), …
Co-viewing is still the dominant practice
Pasquier e.a. (1998)
Does interactive television have to be social?
"interactive television is likely to be successful to the
extent that it takes into account existing behavior
patterns as well as motivations and gratifications
already being satisfied by this enormously successful
medium" (Lee & Lee, 1995)
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8. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
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12. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
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13. Co-located vs. Remote Sociability
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14. Group sizes
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15. Direct vs. Indirect Sociability
TIME
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16. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
16

17. Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Which guidelines do interactive television programs or
services have to adhere to, in order to support social use
within or between micro-communities?
Create domain-specific heuristic sociability guidelines
(Dykstra, 1993)
Step 1:Competitive analysis
Evaluation of different applications with expert evaluation and
User testing
Based on framework of social uses
'Social genres' such as chat applications, interactive game
shows, …
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18. Current status of comparative evaluations
User testing and/or expert evaluation on
AmigoTV – Alcatel
Windows Media Center - Microsoft
Together TV – Motorola
Telebuddies – EDM UHasselt
Cose – Siemens
ConnecTV – TNO
Planned user testing and/or expert evaluation on
MyOwnTV – Alcatel
Joost
CollaboraTV – AT&T
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19. Outline
Micro-communities and television
Social uses of television
Sociability of interactive television
Concerns when studying iTV sociability
Creating sociability guidelines for iTV
Further research
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21. Further research (1)
Step 2: Test the validity of the guidelines
(Hartson e.a., 2001)
Choose a reference system
One of the aforementioned systems
Create list of known sociability issues
By performing ethnographic observation in homes for a
specific application
Let experts perform expert evaluation with sociability guidelines
Compare sociability issues found by experts with list of known
sociability issues
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22. Further research (2)
Sociability research on technology developed in the ISBO-VIN project
Research on how direct gaze and depth cues can enhance social
interaction and make the interaction more natural
Scenarios to describe possible use of adaptive interfaces & FOAF
profiles
Sociability research of the demonstrator
Research to see whether communication between bigger groups
(each 2-5 persons) can be improved by using 3D audio
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23. Questions?