Dramatic Interactors - Computers as Theatre - page 118

form as a user-owned virtual community on the Internet. 3 The WELL re-
quired that people use true names, removing the shield of anonymity that
had characterized many early systems. As the World Wide Web became
popularized, BBS systems and their kin tended to morph into or be re-
placed by wikis, Internet forums, websites, and social media.
Other forms of interaction among interactors happens in the domain of
computer-supported collaborative (or cooperative) work (CSCW). The aim
here is to facilitate collaboration on a particular problem or opportunity by
people in different geographical locations. CSCW relies on any of a vari-
ety of computational tools: fi le-sharing, shared “whiteboards” and tailored
work environments, VNC (Virtual Network Computing) as a way to share
screens, specialized tools related to the task (e.g., industrial design, archi-
tecture, or any of the sciences), video- or voice-conferencing systems, blogs
or email, and IRC (Internet Relay Chat), used heavily by such distributed
communities as Linux programmers. The tools are varied and rich. Shared
goals, the facilitation of collaboration, and working toward consensus dis-
tinguish CSCW interactors from participants in forums or social media.
This tiny history reveals the complexity and centrality of interactions
among interactors in non-gaming communities. Once the architecture for
a BBS or Usenet group or forum has been set up, its content (except that
which is “moderated away”) is entirely user-created. 4 Designers create for-
mal constraints and affordances while interactors provide material all the
way up to the level of plot, depending upon magnitude and shape. Interac-
tion between or among interactors may become the primary creators of the plot—
the whole action — complete with complication and resolution, discovery,
surprise, and reversal .
Of course, many different kinds of “interactions among interactors” are
possible in such systems. People may exchange information, opinions, or
goods. One may respond to a post or start a new thread hoping to begin
a discussion and possibly to form a new community. One may work with
distant colleagues on an invention or a problem. Or one may search anony-
mously for providers of illicit goods under the anonymity afforded by the
alt.net or various “black market” Web sites. In social networks, relationships
3. I am forced to recall a certain boss of mine, who in 1993 told a group of researchers that
the Web would never be mainstream. He described it as for “ . . . only a few geeks and
WELL-heads like you , Laurel.” Actually, I think his point was to look past the Web to pos-
sible new models. But at that moment, we were all stunned.
4. That is, until the onset of the advertising invasion.