Look who's talking to whom: mediating joint attention in multiparty communication and collaboration
Roel Vertegaal · 1998
During one of the many moments in the past four years that I had gotten out of my car to take a photograph of another stunningly beautiful natural landscape, I had just framed what felt like the perfect shot.It was so splendid, that I hesitated.What if I would take just one step further to the left?Might the picture be even better?Of course, I took that step.It was worse.I took another step.Worse still.Three days later, after having walked a full circle around the mountain I was trying to photograph, I returned to my starting position.And it was the best picture I had seen in the whole of the full circle.Although I had answered 360 questions, one for each degree in the circle, one question remained.What had I learned?I would like to thank all those who helped me complete the full circle presented in this book.First and foremost, I would like to thank my wife, Mirjam, who is even more beautiful from the inside than she is from the outside.Without her great support, I could never have poured so much energy into this project.Four years ago, at the start of this project, I stood by the deathbed of my former promotor, the late Ted White.I promised him then I would complete this book.It is dedicated to the loving memory of this wonderful man.Throughout those four years, Gerrit van der Veer has done a great job supervising my work as a highly intelligent coach, and as a walking encyclopedia of scientific methodology.Politics stood, as usual, in the way of Gerrit becoming my promotor.I therefore thank Boris Velichkovsky (a great inspirer) and Anton Nijholt for carrying out this task.I also thank Nancy and Dixon Cleveland, and the whole LC Technologies team, for their kind and exceptional support throughout this project.Without them, it would have failed miserably.Of course, I am greatly indebted to my graduate students, Harro Vons and Robert Slagter.They were instrumental, not just in building the GAZE Groupware System, but also as ideal assistants during the experiments presented in this book.I thank them for all the energy and intelligence they put into what I always considered our project.Other persons and institutions I would like to thank are: Tamas Ungvary (for being my friend), Bert Lenting (for being around)