Utilizing Online Communities to Facilitate Physical World Interactions
Mike Perkowitz, Matthai Philipose and Joseph F.McCarthy Abstract:Online interactions provide a rich source of content from which reputations and communities can be created. With the proliferation of various networked devices through which people can access the digital world from an increasing variety of physical contexts, there is a new potential to utilize these reputations and communities to create interaction opportunities in the physical world. We are creating blogger bridges to enable members of a community of online journalers to safely notify others in the community of their proximity—using a method of progressive revelation via networked devices—in order to facilitate serendipitous encounters among community members who are gathered together in a particular location. We describe the kinds of communities that can support such bridges, define a mechanism for enabling progressive revelation, discuss possible technical solutions, and discuss plans for deployment and evaluation in a real community of use. |