We describe a user study of a large multi-user interactive surface deployed for an initial period within a real world setting. The surface was designed to enable the sharing and exchange of a wide variety of digital media. The setting for the study was the common room of a high school where students come together to mix, socialize, and collaborate throughout the day. We report on how the students use the new technology within their own established communal space. Findings show that the system was used extensively by the students in a variety of ways, including sharing of photos, video clips, and websites, and for facilitating social interaction. We discuss how the interactive shared surface was appropriated by the students and introduced into their everyday lives in ways that both mirrored and extended their existing practices within the communal space.

Dynamic interactive visualisations (DIVs) are intended to help coordination and collaboration

In this paper we propose a novel way of supporting occasional meetings that take place in unfamiliar public places, which promotes lightweight, visible and fluid collaboration. Our central idea is that the sharing and exchange of information occurs across public surfaces that users can easily access and interact with. To this end, we designed and implemented Dynamo, a communal multiuser interactive surface. The surface supports the cooperative sharing and exchange of a wide range of media that can be brought to the surface by users that are remote from their familiar organizational settings.Public spaces provide new challenges for supporting interaction with large displays. Within such spaces, any user can walk up and make opportunistic use of the display, Volume 5, Issue 2

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