Communicative Characteristics of Small Group Teleconferences in Virtual Environments

Atsuya YOSHIDA, Jun KAKUTA

Summary :

When we design a human interface of a computer-mediated communication (CMC) system, it is important to take a socio-behavioral approach for understanding the nature of the human communication. From this point of view, we conducted experimental observations and post-experimental questionnaires to investigate communicative characteristics in a teleconference using Fujitsu Habitat" visual telecommunication software. We experimentally held the following three kinds of small-group conferences consisting of five geographically distributed participants: (a) teleconference using a visual telecommunication system (Fujitsu Habitat"), (b) teleconference using a real-time keyboard telecommunication system of NIFTY-Serve and (c) live face to face physical conference. Analyses were made on (1) effects of the media on utterance behaviors of conference members, and (2) satisfaction of conference members with communicative functions of the media. Satisfaction was measured by a seven-level rating scale. We found that participants in a telconference held by using Habitat showed significant differences in contents of utterances and the rating of satisfaction with nine communicative functions compared with those of conferences held by using a real-time keyboard telecommunication system and a live face-to-face conference. These results suggest some features that could facilitate multi-participant on-line electronic conferences and conversations.

• Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E77-D No.12 pp.1385-1389
• Publication Date: 1994/12/25
• Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Networked Reality)

Authors

Atsuya YOSHIDA
Jun KAKUTA

Keyword

computer-mediated communication,  visual keyboard conference,  Habitat,  on-line virtual environment,  user behavior,  utterance,  electronic personality,  anonymity