Katherine Milton,
Arizona State University, USA
SMARTlab Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design,UK

Product development in technology and communications is often a process that is done behind closed doors, relying on a myriad of focus groups, survey data, market analysis, and hand-selected beta-testers, to inform the viability of functions, and design parameters that will be experienced by the masses, or the "end user". The "end user" is more often than not relegated to the role of passive agent, required to adapt to choices made long before the product is available to the public. While focus groups and market research can offer useful insight to the development of a product, these development strategies can also suffer from the near-sightedness of working from within a tight box, with known parameters and variables.

Putting a product "out there" - to the public - during it's developmental stages is as foolish as it is brave, as crazy as it is genius, as tricky as it is informative. When a developer opens-up the process to work with end users in a reflexive manner, the horse is let loose from the barn. What could have been a mistake hidden behind locked doors has the potential to become an event. As user feedback is assessed and integrated into newer versions, the relationship between the maker and the user can change. Users can become emboldened, more insistent, more demanding. With each change, there are ripple effects throughout the social world of the user community. By opening-up the development process to include the user community as co-creators, the developer learns a wide variety about the social culture and functional impact that evolves from design choices. This is the creative operational model employed by programmer/developer Tim Dorcey.

No stranger to the world of interactive programming, Dorcey is considered the founder of computer-based desktop video conferencing, after pioneering the first lead application in this field, CUseeME. In developing iVisit, Dorcey's interest shifted to considerations related to creating a "peer-to-peer" application, one that did not rely on a distally placed computer server to serve as the communications hub, but made use of the connective power of the individual users home computer and internet connection to link participants. Having learned much from the evolution of CUseeME, Dorcey launched this endeavor with the philosophical roots of the application grounded to the operational rubrics of the telephone industry, remaining mindful of tools evolution, but hands-off in the social policing of its use. He continues to craft iVisit with the prudent consideration of a gardener, pruning when necessary, but also allowing time to let solid interactional roots take hold, and cultural shifts to evolve.

As a result of this careful crafting, iVisit continues to grow both functionally, and in its user-base, with cross-talk between Dorcey and the end-users creating shifts in aspects of both the application's online social culture, and operational function. What's emerged is the product of fluidity, where technical and social influences ebb and flow, with technical advancements sometimes driving social change, and other times the social needs driving technical priorities.

This chapter, will explore the ways in which the dynamic interaction between the programmer and audience, influences not only the creation of a tool, from the developers standpoint, but also creates a community model, if not a model community, instilling a sense of ownership and investment in the end user. Central to this exploration is the question: how do design choices that are the co-intentional outcomes of conscious reflexive practice enable the development of a community? In referring to "reflexive practice" in this case, we take into consideration the iterative process, where the product itself is in continual emergence, a living thing, if you will. This chapter will also introduce issues pertaining to online identity and paradigms of participation in the iVisit online community.

It is too often said that being online is not a "real" experience. My research counters this "old-think" notion ­ and underscores the visceral connection that learners make in online learning communities, and which social agents make in online social networks. The world of online-interaction, especially related to video-conferenced academic and social sphere's, is a world of richly layered media and messages. It is mediated by visual, but not physical, proximity. It is mediated by technology, by time, and by memory. Each element adding a layer of meaning which must be deconstructed to understand the effects on the whole.

The world of online interaction carries with it a different pace, and a different mood. Participants quickly adapt their communicative style to pay attention in a different way. They learn to listen visually; and to experience the impact of text and image, with a cadence uncommon to the passive reflection afforded by traditional "reading". This impact can be profoundly intimate, emotionally charged, varied, and most importantly embodied, and thereby fundamentally physical.

The structure of an online environment is one of the most crucial aspects towards its success or failure in bridging proximal distance with an emotionally immersive visceral connection. Without the establishment of a carefully considered social blueprint, and intuitive user interface, an online environment can become chaotic rather than cohesive. Participants can feel isolated rather than dynamically connected. The structure of an online environment is the outcome of fundamental development choices made by its makers ­ the programmers and designers. This chapter presents development data that has emerged and evolved over the last 3-years with my experiences as an educator, and sometimes advisor, with the desktop video conferencing application iVisit, it's online community, and the application's lead developer.

Structuring for a diverse range of possibilities

In creating this online world, Dorcey structured the iVisit common directory into not only broad thematic categories, but, in essence, into the kinds of sub-sections common to a small town or city. On his main directory one finds zones of enterprise where business occurs, and private spheres where families gather, as well as zones for school groups. These aforementioned zones are primarily private areas that carry their own social protocols, habits, and cultures that are specific to the organization or family order. Interactions within these zones are self-contained, specific, and targeted. Beyond these areas of formalized and intentional interaction, are also zones that are less cooperatively structured, zones in which social life, and social rituals are enacted. These open-access areas simulate the public sphere, and public spaces, of offline-life with "rooms" that assume the character of traditional, or proximally-based meeting places.

Share your world

The iVisit social landscape contains markers that operationally resemble a variety of urban and suburban entities. For example, a WELCOME folder to serve as the environment's information center ­ where a participant can find help or direction; and a radio-station where broadcasters may interact with their listening audience; as well as zones that operationally function like a café, or bar, where participants may gather for informal chat. Also included are specific zones for friends to gather, for hobbiests to meet, and for romantic allegiances to form. A separate password-protected public zone leads mature audiences to an area for "adult encounters" ranging from the pedestrian to the deviant, where sexuality is fore-grounded.

From a programming standpoint, these diverse zones, and their denizens serve as both a window, and a diagnostic tool towards, honing the development of this communicative tool. The emerging social microcosm of this programming endeavor also gives rise to significant research questions relating to the ways in which community evolution occurs, the ways in which culture shifts, and how human interaction is negotiated in visually mediated real-time space. Of salience is the unique consideration of these transactions being enacted not only temporally and collectively, but also in co-intimate social space.

iVisit offers the online educator, a tool to bridge issues concerning the lack, or fragmentation, of social presence that may be experienced by students enrolled in online courses. Experientially, I have found that my students enjoy being able to "lay eyes on one another" during our scheduled bi-monthly debates focused on issues explored asynchronously. The visual presence adds a layer of tangibility to their experience of the online environment.

More than 3-years ago, Dr.'s Susan Kozel and Lizbeth Goodman, and I, came upon iVisit as a tool to serve the Extended Body Project, a transnational course joining Performance Studies students from New York University, with students of the University of Surrey, UK. iVisit became classroom, stage, and lecture hall, for these students, with an array of internationally renowned lecturers worldwide, serving as guest lecturers on a weekly basis. As a media scholar using iVisit, I have assumed a variety of roles over the past few years: as educator, artist, development advisor, friend, and colleague. Beyond the realms of academic life, the social actors in an iVisit room can be fun, interesting, annoying, real, surreal, supportive or subversive. Sometimes they can be all of those things simultaneously.

Social transactions in visually mediated space

Social conventions are constructed through a "lived process", through living our daily lives in our communities. Central to that which makes up our daily lives is culture and habit. Individuals carry personal, but culturally-based and embodied social norms. For instance, the ways in which individuals behave in their home environment typically varies from the ways in which they may behave in the public sphere, and different again from the ways in which they may behave in the home of a friend.

Rodney Fuller, in his 1996 work entitled "Human-computer-human-interaction: How computers affect interpersonal communication", introduced the concept of personality "masks" which individuals wear in a variety of settings in their daily life. His study illustrated how social norms and behavior color the ways in which individuals are perceived in computer mediated conversations, and defines some of the operational "masks" that individuals assume in their interactions. His work adds to the literature that supports the importance of social setting on the affective properties that govern behavior.

Visually-mediated community settings play host to a new interactional paradigm ­ that which Sher Doruff refers to as "working-alone-together", in her seminal research work on online collaborative art-making spaces, and the "Keystroke" program. Questions lie at the core of this consideration that pertain to the impact on social life when participants simultaneously engage from disparate, though socially intimate environs. Here, exists a sphere in which habit and tradition are either new, borrowed, or absent, a sphere where the social conventions, and the cultural lexicon are in constant negotiation. Individual behavior within this emerging and culturally diverse social sphere provides a fertile ground for behavioral research, as well as a challenging environment for communications management.

Deeper issues reside within these considerations of online interactional dynamics aside from the tool makers aspect, including the proxemics of temporal space, and the ways in which individuals navigate access-permission and privacy realms in a real-time, visually-mediated environment. Temporal proximity is defined here in terms of that which occurs in time, and in the mind, and thereby, embodied (head-space and visceral reaction), rather than in a place of physical proximity. Forget notions which compare and contrast this realm with that of the proximal world (or offline life), using terms like "in real life". When online, that which carries affective weight, is indeed real to the participant. That which imparts a visceral reaction, is indeed "real" to the participant. In this particular environment, where social actors are seen, typically as themselves, in real-time, via video camera, concepts of "role play" become more limited, or at best ephemeral. The connections that many social actors make in this environment are longitudinal, and often profound.

While some iVisitors defend to the end the "right" of participants to behave with absolute freedom online, what could not be denied was the affective artifact that socially deviant behavior could leave on prospective users. Emergent from this is the understanding that online, as well as off, individuals require "personal space" and comfort zones. New to this consideration are questions pertaining to infringements of temporal or emotional proximity rather than physical proximity in an individual's definition of "personal space". Just as standing too near to an individual can cause discomfort and aversion in a proximal setting, so too can infringements to emotional access cause visceral discomfort in a temporal space. The mind and emotional-self exhibit similar kinds of boundaries, as those exhibited by the body. Physical reaction is a manifestation of that which first resides in the mind. The visceral reactions that we see literally expressed in an online environment take on a more poignant significance, as they may demonstrate elements of "essential affect".

This social fact is another example of that which needed an applications-based programming intervention. The need for Dorcey to develop user-based features that allowed or denied intimate or exclusionary access emerged as important through a critical cross-talk between the tool-maker and the user community. Application-based tools to control access, and enable moderating a room, also emerged as an important need within the community, though with the introduction of each intervention, also came some backlash.

Profiling the user community -
Paradigms of participation in mediated exchange

The social realm of iVisit could be thought of as the realtime, existential "Seinfeld" of the online world, an online experience about nothing in particular. Strangers with varying levels of familiarity coalesce and mingle sharing aspects of their worlds. As social actors of online environments engage in discourse, some distinct characteristics emerge related to communicative styles, and social agendas. What is clear from any sustained observation of these environments is that there are a variety of social agendas at play in any given "room", and some agendas are in direct opposition to others. On first blush, this observation may seem rather pedestrian, and common to any interactional stage, however, upon deeper analysis some particularities specific to the mediated, post-modern form reveal themselves.

Immediately, three distinct forms of participatory intent and style are commonly observed in the iVisit arena. These interaction styles can be thought of as the broad thematic archetypes under which participants may "naturally" or intentionally fall. The first of these categories is that of "communicator". The aspects common to "communicators" include the presentation of themselves as "real" or "true" in the communicative self. "Communicators" are traditionally affable room members, who develop close online relationships with others iVisitor friends. They talk about their offline lives with others, and are the most likely to have an open ear to listen to the trials of others. The "communicator" tends to view their online persona as being similar to their offline persona, and they often categorize the nature of their online connections with others as "profound", and even, "lifelong", in terms of sustained friendships. In short, "communicators" often create the stability reliable social fabric of the environment.

This is not to suggest that participants remain exclusively within one paradigm of participation. Cross-paradigmatic shifts occur regularly, with most users "trying on" a different style from time to time, or shifting styles within a room to mirror the style of the dominant actor, or room host. What is to be noted is that most participants settle into a "default" paradigm of participation ­ one in which they most regularly return in their interactions.

In interviewing the 40% of those who are chronically connected ­ online for more than 7-hrs a day. I found that their perception of the "reality" of the environment and the relationships therein is highly dependant upon how they were introduced to computer technology. 70% of those who had their first experiences through video gaming and edutainment expressed their relationships online as less real, and as iVisit as a gaming environment.

Alternately 80% of those who came in from a communications/business background expressed the reality of the environment as being profound ­ including having made lifelong friends here. When you overlay these different centres of reality in a common and co-intimate social setting.. it's easy to see how intentionality can impact the social achievement in an interactional setting.

Intentionality and accountability are strong elements that impact social behavior in an online environment, and while I could depend on my students and colleagues to behave in a certain manner in our exchanges, that certainly does not trickle over to the social world of the space.

The wild west days

Upon it's initial release, iVisit was an "open book" of an environment, with few interventions, aside from the articulated ire of it's community members, to control or limit the expressive freedoms of any participant. These days are often referred to by veteran iVisitors as the "wild west" days, where governance was unstructured, and participants had no option but to ignore the antics of the subversive, and the perverse. Chat rooms were open, with limited application-based features with which to moderate the activities therein. An ability to "chat privately" with any user in a room, in a way that kept the chat content out of view of others in the room made it easy for friends to interact privately.

This same feature, which enabled discrete conversation in an open room, when abused, also made it easy for the perverse to essentially prey upon, insult, or otherwise violate a user quietly, relentlessly, at will, and without consequence. In these early days, enough conversation in the social sphere focused on "outing" offenders, and policing the environment that it became clear that a more serious, application-based intervention was needed. Dorcey enacted on this need by developing a successive suite of features that allowed users a greater range of options to insure personal privacy, and user-based choice in access rights.

Some programming features which emerged through the cross talk between Dorcey, and the user-group served to help colonize the iVisit landscape. This colonization also came with repercussions, backlash, and ripples through the online social world, and in turn, back to the developer again. Sometimes the feedback would embody the sentiment that "no good deed will go unpunished" as scathing renouncements would pour-in from one disenfranchised group or another. All change required time and patience, before an informed assessment of the outcome could be weighed. Immediately, a new feature or change could take on the properties of a biological irritant being introduced to an existing living system ­ some upset would be certain.

Moderate your world

The close of the "wild west days" of iVisit can be marked by a single feature, and a single moment; the introduction of the "boot" button. With this feature, a room creator could manage, or moderate, by allowing or disallowing individual users from inhabiting their room. A moderator's password could be established, and any user knowing this password could gain access to the power to evict another user. The button was instituted as a means to rid rooms of participants who were being openly inappropriate or offensive. A "boot" from a room would disallow the offending participant from re-entering that room for 5-consecutive days. Friends would share password amongst each other, setting and enforcing certain standards of acceptable behavior from room to room, from cohort to cohort. This simple feature, which could be enabled or disabled by any room creator was of the most socially shocking to the online order, and a nail in the coffin of "free expression" for some users.

The user-community was ROCKED by this brazen little feature. Imagine a room moderator could actually dispense of a participant without saying a thing! The initial introduction of the boot feature was peppered with "boot wars" between users and user-groups, where moderating became an intoxicating power. The online message board lit-up with rants, and raves. Ideas about "user's rights" popped up, adding an interesting social affect. The user group expressing perceived "rights" as group members as well as their identity as a cohesive group. The indignation over the introduction of the boot feature passed in about 6-months, and what emerged in it's place were rooms that had more stable and reliable clientele's ­ rooms started to become colonized by more homogeneous groups. Affinity groups evolved, "regulars" who "belonged" to one "room" or another emerged as the social glue setting the ambience for the social encounters within these discrete environments.

Control access to your world

While the boot feature served as an effective tool to rid a room of those being openly destructive to the social climate of a room, there still existed a way to be quietly subversive. The application carried with it a way to enable participants to speak discretely with one another in a background channel, while in the public sphere of a room setting. This "private" access was open to all participants. With the click of the "private" button, a participant could direct chat exclusively to another, without it being broadcast to the group as a whole. While the "private" mode was useful with friends, in the hands of the subversive and perverse it was a powerful tool. Women especially were being continually harassed.

It was not, and still is not, unusual for women to type "no private messages" in the lower banner of their video image, indicating that they would not engage in background dialogues with strangers. "PRIVATE=BLACKLIST", and a list of other iterations indicating a participants aversion to being messaged in the background were created. Discussion topics were constantly interrupted by the line "please do not private me", indicating that the banner requests were not enough, and were not honored. "Outing" the offender became a mode of coping with these background messages. When an unwanted message was received, the recipient would often copy, and paste the line for everyone in the room to see. The messages were typically requests that would begin with the phrase "show me your". Once "outed", a room owner would typically boot the offender, but, not until after the damage was done. What was needed was a way in which each participant could allow or disallow discrete access, on an individual basis.

Through dialogue and feedback with the users, and more pointedly, with women users, Dorcey came upon the idea of introducing a feature that would block private messages by default, and allow users to selectively identify those with whom carte blanche access was granted. Upon the release of the feature that allowed control of private access to be put firmly in the hands of the individual user, iVisit saw one of the largest download onslaughts in it's history. It was seen as one of the most popular features to be released. Within days the culture of the rooms was already seeing a change. No longer was interactional space taken up by "outing" offending messengers. Concurrently, access became an affective device, something which could tell a user how profound or superficial their relationship with others may be.

From dialogue to action

Dorcey has remained quietly available to the user community, even as he maintains a busy production schedule of upgrading, and updating the application. Still, more ways of acquiring feedback are needed for a broader sample of which needs are of the most immediate. Consequently, a variety of avenues for users to engage in a dialogue with the development team exist. Over time, end users have come to the forefront as co-developers in a more profound way than what is typically heard of in a traditional technology start-up. Their suggestions and recommendations continue to shape the evolution of the application, often in real-time. Dorcey, to his credit, remains open to, and sometimes inspired by, the input. Such user-developer partnerships have been seen in the implementation of internally-programmed social controls, such as the "boot button", as well as externally negotiated forums, like the HELP desk.

A WELCOME area, staffed by a cadre of volunteers, and representing a diverse range of languages, serves as the help desk and information center, to those whom may have a technical or logistical question, be they newcomers, or veteran "visitors". This resource emerged as a user-based initiative, led by a single participant, called "Michael". Taking his familiarity of the application, and his interest in supporting the overall community spirit of the social sphere, Michael proposed the development of a forum that would allow dedicated users to give their time in the assistance of others. Some two-years later, the volunteer base has grown to more than 100 users, and includes participation from around the globe.

Not all input happens in real-time. A web-based message board that encompasses not only questions of a technical nature, but also serves as the "daily rag" for the social environment, is an additional forum for public discourse pertaining to the direction and perceived needs of the application. The message board also serves as the area where users may report on any bugs, or glitches, as well as share information informally amongst each other about third-party enhancements to extend the applications capabilities. Dorcey, and those working closely with him, monitor questions and concerns posted to the board daily, and judiciously act upon the issues which demonstrate the greatest need of technical intervention or structural organization, fine-tuning the application in accordance to those needs. In some cases, a need for one sector of the community may prove to be a hindrance to another sector. As they say, one mans meat is another man's poison. Technical interventions can change and shape the social climate, and shift power dynamics in profound ways.

Conclusion

The dynamic interaction between user and maker has had a significant influence on the creation of the iVisit tool, allowing the developer a way to see where, and what kinds of change is needed. These interactions have provided immediate feedback as to the effectiveness of design choices, but have also required patience in allowing changes to propagate and mature. This approach has been invaluable as it keeps the development process alive and allows for expert users to emerge who can add important perspective, and it honors the rich assortment of experiences and expertise that is contained by a diverse user community.

Design choices that are the co-intentional outcomes of conscious reflexive practice have allowed empowerment to perk from within the user base as the users see their concerns addressed, and change implemented. It has allowed for individuals to emerge as leaders, and new forms of social segregation to occur (for instance the iVisit Help team, room owners, etc). A distinct community has emerged, and is strengthened by allowing for an open platform, or a town square, if you will (the message board) for grievances to be aired, as well as for praise to be lavished.

iVisit remains in evolution, just recently breaking away from it's parent company to "go it alone". Initial members of the volunteer-based Help Team are now becoming fully vested members of the company. A commercial version is expected to be launched imminently. Exclusive servers are being sold to facilitate intra-net, or closed-circuit user bases, that are outside of the common server directory structure. This should be particularly inviting to businesses and education. As the application and it's designer take the steps towards market release, the core remains the same: to allow users to help fine-tune the product, and keeping the framework of the development flexible enough to enable this kind of open exchange.

author's note: special thanks to Tim Dorcey, Michael Hicks, and Daniel Marquess for valuable insight and assistance in the development of this work.

Katherine Milton is a specialist in online interactions, especially pertaining to educative settings; an award winning media developer, as well as an independent researcher and writer, living in Venice, California. Her Ph.D. research focuses on the emergence of leadership in text-based online learning communities. She has been associated with the College of Education, and the Institute for Studies in the Arts at Arizona State University, as well as the SMARTlab, of the London Institute, UK.

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