27th
11/90: Thoughts on symmetry
A recent conversation with Amy Voida prompted me to take another look at a paper that she co-authored for CSCW 2008, Asymmetry in Media Spaces. The paper presents an analysis of situations in which asymmetry is beneficial in media spaces, recognizing that the goal of enhanced symmetry is not always best. They highlight the benefits of asymmetry in a design study called the ME-dia Space, which is a system that allows a remote tele-worker to participate in a more traditional office setting.
I don’t think the authors in any way overstate the case that many attempts at remote collaboration technology strive for symmetry without much consideration of the relative benefits of it versus a more asymmetric arrangement. In our high-end conferencing setup, for instance, we have a large, high-definition video feed of the remote site projected at the front of the room (as well as a smaller monitor that a local speaker can see). This works extremely well for remote viewing in the rooms and quite well when there is a sizable remote audience. Lately, we have also been using the system for events where the remote audience is very small and it has been, well, weird. Seeing just a handful of people sharing the stage with the speaker is very odd when sitting in a packed room and it has been a huge distraction. Thinking about the asymmetric attendance, it makes more sense to turn off the large screen and only have the remote audience appear on a much smaller ceiling-mounted monitor. That way the few people that do participate from that site blend in to the audience, rather than sitting at front on display.
