Supporting real-time, mediated group activities using orchestration

Video conferencing and media spaces have been on the research agenda for decades. However, most research has been on supporting meetings in work contexts, often trying to approximate real meetings in many regards. In this paper, we explore how video conferencing and media spaces can extend beyond meetings to support shared activities and relationships between distant friends and family members. Informed by social science and inspired by live TV composition, we propose live orchestrated video streams as a way to enable a shared experience of a common activity, shared among multiple households. We present some social science ramifications and discuss related technical challenges.