While attending a workshop of more than 40 researchers in multimedia funded by IDMPO in Singapore, it was a pleasant surprise that most people were very comfortable with the idea that for expanding communications, from the current generation technology to the next generation, experience should be at the center. Experiential communication was considered to be the key. By expanding current communication technology naturally from current text and usually one medium (or at most two as in video) to include as many human senses as possible, one can also capture the context, emotions, and of course the information. Moreover, this new approach may also allow people to communicate their experiences more richly than in the abstract environment of current systems.
This perspective is very important for developing new communication environments that may touch and influence more members of human society than the current Web and even mobile phones have done. Just a few years ago, researchers may not have converged to this opinion. Clearly, time and familiarity with benefits of some technology has a ‘cultural’ effect of shared experiences that bring people together. Another big aspect in changing views among researchers is the use of experiential data, that is the data we experience using our sensors such as audio-visual data, on the web by almost all popular sites.
In any case, being a believer in experiential computing for quite some time, I liked this trend among researchers. Hopefully this is a trend will catch-up among researcher even in USA.
Hi Ramesh,
I would like to know when are the next conventions in communication research. Still in Singapore?
Thank you, I will come to read the answer.