Ambient Co-Presence

he Multiplayer Internet needs a Gradient of Presence.

We can be: ...

Alone in Alone Spaces

Alone in Together Spaces

Together in Alone Spaces

Together in Together Spaces

but the presence is a spectrum:

Lean In (Dominant)

Leank Back (Ambient)

The Multiplayer Internet needs a Gradient of Presence. We can be: ... Alone in Alone Spaces Alone in Together Spaces Together in Alone Spaces Together in Together Spaces but the presence is a spectrum: Lean In (Dominant) Leank Back (Ambient)

For most of us, I suspect, presence doesn’t mean dressing up as an oversize robot floating in a space station. It means experiencing our friends and family through the full bandwidth of human connection: facial expressions, subtle vocal cues, all experienced in an environment that we can feel and touch with our unmediated senses.

We’ve lost gradients of intimacy, a concept from architecture, the ability to loiter and meander through a space, engaging when we want in varying levels of expression. We don’t have any peripheral vision on the internet. We have to be in one place or the other. Simultaneously, we’re never really in any place—we can always blame connection issues a... See more

Can we tie together a web of these communal spaces to mimic exploring a city, where engaging feels like an everyday experience rather than a special isolated surprise?

Digital communities emerge in shared time rather than in shared space; simultaneity is the coin of the realm.