Connecting Remote Teams: Cross-Media Integration to Support Remote Informal Encounters

Abstract

This video presents the Hello.Wall artefact in a mixedmedia set-up to support spontaneous, informal encounters in two remote lounge spaces of a distributed team. The Hello.Walls are used as awareness tools to know more about the remote team’s state and at the same time as a tool to smoothen transitions to place-based video communication among the remote teams ’ members. This connecting-remote-teams scenario was tested in a livinglab evaluation for several weeks and proved to foster remote informal encounters and thereby contributed to smooth and fluent project work in our Ambient-Agoras project. Keywords Ambient display, informative art, social architecture, awareness, cross-media integration, place-based video conferencing, distributed teams, interaction zone