Monday, February 25, 2008

Response 2: Interactive CoMedia Shared Histories

Please Click to ENLARGE!

CoMedia Shared Histories - An Interactive Chat for SubTextual Comments & Mutual Viewing

In considering a context for a 2-D chat environment Kate & I realized that we would only really want to participate in a space if it was very context specific, a defined topic with layers of rich cultural interpretation and previous discussion. Kate mentioned that John Maeda once said to her that the problem with the web is that it is Lonely. We can't see that other people are there. I agree.

CoMedia Shared Histories, please click to see the full design, presents an interface for doing the following:

MACRO:
1) Choose a realm for context of interaction (SEE TOP BAR):
a) Share, Collaborate, View the same information (documents & Files & Desktop)
b) Add SubText to Services connected to Media (Flickr, NetFlix, GenArt) CoFlix, CoGen
c) Poll or Aggregate opinions on in a Geographical Space on Specific topics.

2) Filter the History of Information by:
a) Related community - friends who share similar or disimilar categorical interests, or the case of the CoFlix - genres, or values.
b) Filter by VALUE PROFILE, things that you prioritize in your search for new or existing material - authenticity, dialog, character dev, natural lighting....
c) Filter By Date, Rating. See Drag bars on the top and bottom of the picture.

Filtering provides a way of turning on and off different layers of information, and adding comments to those context specific layers. People interact in a Geographical Space that reflects their History, Preferences, and links them with similar people in a large community.

MICRO: Viewing Specific Content within a Distribution Matrix:

In this case I have choosen to illustrate CoFlix - a system for mutual viewing of a NetFlix movie at the same time. Within this application viewers can focus on the following:

A) Specific Points in the Timeline of the Film, and types of comment layers that might show up within that Chapter or Scene.
B) Interpretations and Directors Commentary - comments that have been signified as valuable and integral to the production.
C) Meta Relationships and Links to similar scenes - and peoples thoughts around those.

As people interact with the system it records their preferences and updates their Profile History. This provides a framework for determining where their comments might show up later for other people looking at a film a second time and leaving their own notes and comments.

The depth of such a system allows for Realtime Interaction and Chat - but also builds a History of interaction with the Medium that is context aware. This would solve the problem of aimless chat and focus the discussion on the medium at hand, utilizing the most immersive medium in popular culture, film.

No comments: