what are
virtual
gatherings?
Gatherings are an exchange of space, time, presence, knowledge. Taking away the physical aspect of gatherings, it becomes an abstract of that communication that gets split into levels of privacy and transparency. Your participation and presence is recorded in the internet.
In our current times, everything seems so fast and accessible.
Yet however readily available it all feels, what has been stopping you from connecting with whoever you want, in whatever form you desire?
Can you truly play any game you want with the laptop you own right now?
What happens to the data you provide online?
Can a tweet affect us in real life?
From the everyday devices around you, the spatial structure of the platform you access, to the technical mechanics of the virtual spaces and zooming all the way out to how it all affects us globally, we decipher how it all works.
HOW DO
virtual gatherings work?
How do you self express & access a virtual gathering?
How you are represented in a virtual gathering can range from being just a unique name, to a snippet of a photo, to having a full body expressed as you. Almost half the time that you may be on these gathering platforms, you are represented through the use of an icon and a unique username. With this incredibly limiting format, platforms will often allow you more space to further identify yourself through the use of banners, description boxes or additional photos. Characters in a gaming preset, on the other hand, will often not allow you the freedom to elaborate about your being in such a way, but allow you to express your sense of self in the forms of customization. Likewise, avatars in virtual worlds will further allow you more modes of customization as a means of expressing your physicality.
Avatar representation and technologies
“The biggest challenge to developing telepresence is achieving that sense of “being there.”
Can telepresence be a true substitute for the real thing?
Will we be able to couple our artificial devices naturally and comfortably to work together with the sensory mechanisms of human organisms?“
- Marvin Minsky on human-technology interaction, 1980
In order to express your subjectivity in virtual gatherings, actions through the inputting of data are required.
As we type, like, subscribe, shoot or dance in virtual spaces, we are subconsciously inputting data though these micro actions to form and represent us as an individual. The gadgets and hardware that we use becomes the extension of our bodies in the immersive.
The keyboard and microphone becomes our voice, the mouse and joysticks become our bodily movements.
The platforms that we most often interact with do not deal with direct translations of your actions.
You do not have to be smiling to press the like button, or feel pain when you are shot in game, but as inputting devices continue to develop for virtual reality worlds, the translation of these actions from your body start to become more sync and direct. Data gloves, bodysuits and treadmills now exist for VR platforms to be able to more precisely read the movements of your body; your headset is already doing this by reading your surroundings in relation to your movement. What these developments in the end conclude to do, is to increase in your virtual presence and in helping you believe in the space that you are in through the engagements you make.
Immersion
The perceptual experience (Chapter 2) that one might experience in through the virtual gatherings is related to the output of the platforms. A more immersive experience on a platform (emotional, spatial, sensory-motoric, cognitive) will require a stimulus on a range of our senses, a corresponding action that matches the user’s actions as well as the ability for the user’s interactions to make changes to the world. VR headset have been developed around human vision as it is the most powerful sensorial information that is passed on to the brain (hearing, touch and other senses follow suit).
The current technologies in headsets include eye tracking cameras and displays that mimic the retinal focuses of the eyes to give us a visual output as close as possible to how our optics work in real life. Spatial audio helps to add dimensionality to a space where and give additional information on the surrounding that may not be presented visually. Other devices such as bodysuits are also available as an extension of your headset to provide haptic output.
Despite all these technological advances in immersion, most platforms that are readily available to us have not implemented these to their usage yet.
Airpods Spatial Audio test
(Warning: audio is loud)
Rubber Hand Experiment
Typical Domestic Immersion Setup
Current Technologies
Intentionally or not, say you have been participating in some kind of a virtual gathering. What was your key into these gatherings? Without a doubt, the internet-connected devices that we use in our everyday lives are the portal into these meetings. Whether it is our mobile phones, computers, gaming consoles or even the smartwatches on our wrists, its ability to receive internet connection has allowed for us to transmit our existences into the virtual worlds, hence relaying those data and input to another person on the other side of the screen.
As the tech world continues to thrive for a better virtual gathering space, the advancement of platforms are respectively allowing more interconnectivity and immersion. With the more demanding requirements to process heavier data from these platforms, the specs of your devices respectively need to be higher. This is why some of us still cannot access platforms like Sansar, even if we have access to a laptop, as compared to a lighter platform like Whatsapp, which can be accessed on many interfaces across many devices.
There are many sites online that you can use to compare the spec of your current computer for VR compatibility. At a budget, a VR gaming compatible pc can be build at $750. The only VR headset compatible with ios Mac is currently HTC Vive.
Fringe developments being developed are less readily available and the price of the hardware inherently becomes more expensive. As supposed to mouses that are available in many sizes, forms and colours with countless designs, where you’d be able to find one that fits both your taste and ergonomics with ease - the headset has yet been customized in a way where all user experience can be made equally comfortable. Many newly developed hardware are currently one size fits all.
Current Limitations
As we increasingly engage with the immersive internet, we often forget that 43% of the global population still do not have access via the internet to these platforms and services. North Korea only gives internet access to higher ranked officials and institutes and it’s webrowser only has access to 1,000 to 5,500 websites on the internet (as of January 2020 there were over 1.74 billion websites on the Internet). It is estimated that there are only a couple thousand internet users in North Korea as compared to its population of around 25 million. Many political limitations exists around the worlds that interrupts people's access to the internet.
Only 1.31% of Eritrea's population are internet users. As electricity remains scarce in the country and it’s telecommunications services are inadequate. Even though Eritrea has a coastal location, it has no submarine cable landing station. An hour of internet cafe access equates to the cost of 7 loaves of bread.
'If you went to North Korea and asked people about the internet,
most of them would probably have no idea what you were talking about'
-Vox, 2015
Hardware for Virtual Gatherings
What makes these gatherings possible?
Communicative Capacity & Signs of a Gathering
Communication is essential to a gathering, and it is done through the use of inputting devices as mentioned previously, ranging from text, image, audio to video in both synchronous and asynchronous forms. Rarely, you will find platforms that may not allow in sync communication but these platforms will often leave traces of other presences behind. Signs of a gathering can be the number of likes, followers, online symbols to change to in platform content (i.e. Wikipedia).
Gaming platforms often don’t have any communicative means to express themselves apart from the preset actions available in game, hence why other platforms such as discord is used as a secondary means of communicating.
Although most platforms already provide you with a space, most do not allow the ability to add to the structure of the platform, but allows the ability to personalize parts of the space. This is used in order to limit the kinds of data one up upload onto a platform and so the platform is limited to a the spatial structure intended by the original creator.
In this format, one's way of expression is exercised as you are forced to communicate through a certain medium. YouTube is a good example of this, where you are able to personalize your profile page and the description boxes to your videos but are limited to the format of synchronous and asynchronous videos which may keep a healthy amount of people from becoming creators on the platform.
Platforms that will allow you to to add to its actual spatial structure are also most likely to format you to a certain format, though in this case, to prevent an overloading of data and files that may be too detailed or heavy. Sansar, for instance, only allows the import of objects (of which only .fbx and .obj files are allowed for 3D objects) and has no object generation tool in the platform. These kinds of platforms become a means of representation on the immersive, rather than a medium like platforms that allow user content creation.
Spatial Structures
Just like our physical world, there are sometimes limits to how many people a space can hold. This often means the platform will duplicates of the same space to be able to capacitate all attendees. This is often the case for gaming platforms, as a limited amount of attendees in accordance with a narrated storyline of a game with allow a more achievable outcome (winning and losing). Platforms with no narrative and with unlimited or high numbers of attendees result in free worlds, where all variables of user actions are possible.
Spaces in the platforms can be linked, like going to on an elevator to a different floor of the hotel, like in Sansar, where all spaces are open, different and interconnected. These worlds are linked through a unique URL just like on the web, where the addresses take you to a particular place in the platform.
With some platforms being owned by the same parent company, it is also often interlinked with one another. An example is the recent update with Instagram and Messenger, where you will be able to message Instagram users through Messenger.
Worlds & Instances
Objects being uploaded into Sansar
Among Us only allows 10 players at a time
How are these gatherings run?
When we think of virtual gathering spaces, we often think of the interface with which we interact, the speed of interaction, and the privacy of communication. Some might subconsciously prefer one platform over the other because of the details in its design, but most of the time it is due to communication quality. Zoom is less laggy than Microsoft Teams, Twitch is preferred for its live streams to Youtube. Underneath it all lies the platform architecture. Architecture refers to structures of the program software - its elements, their properties and relations among them.
Different communication requires different architecture.
Architecture functions as a blueprint for platform software. Many platforms have similar architecture. Video communications tend to use similar protocols, while chat apps have their own infrastructure, and web pages are built in a whole other way. Nevertheless, when a new platform arises, which has similar functions to an existing one, yet everyone springs there, the subtle differences in signal transmission could be the reason why.
Internet protocols are the methods by which data is sent between computers over the internet. A set of mandatory protocols is used for every internet access, and most web pages are rather standardised in their delivery. However, when it comes to other functions, like live streaming, live and group chatting, video conferencing, more recent or new protocols need to be used in order to achieve these functions. When such a protocol is used, some of the security functionality needs to be implemented from scratch, since it is not using the already developed internet security protocols, which is why Zoom, for example, until very recently, wasn’t providing end-to-end encryption.
There are, as of now, 26 instant messaging protocols, as listed on Wikipedia - including Skype, Signal Protocol and Steam Friends, but there very well might be more. Sometimes a platform uses the available ones, or sometimes it invents its own, when an innovative approach is required to fulfil new and better functions, therefore new protocols can be developed.
Architecture
Web Communication Types
High level diagram of Twitch live stream protocols
They know you better than you know yourself.
Most platforms use some level of Artificial Intelligence, commonly to optimize the internal processes, but also, to deliver a unique experience for each user to boost engagement, especially since so many platforms are free, which happens with the use of recommendation systems. It is possible to create a recommendation system without the use of a machine learning model (a subset of Artificial Intelligence), which would implement a memory-based method of the nearest neighbour logic, although those are not very effective and scale poorly. However, a model-based approach devises a machine learning model to learn from the user’s activity to predict actions by describing and classifying that behaviour. The two methods above are described as collaborative filtering. On the other hand, there is also a Content-based method, where a prediction is made by knowing the user’s key characteristics, such as sex, age, etc., and the characteristics of the content. Recommender systems may use machine learning to varying extends and complexities. Most successful recommendation engines use both collaborative filtering and content-based systems.
Although genius from a business model point of view (The Netflix prize to find better systems in 2006-2009 substantially energized their R&D), such models hold the dangers of echo-chamber creation.
A recommender system may be used across multiple platforms through cross-site tracking. Several platforms may share among each other the data they collect and use it for developing various AI tools, both for use within the platform and for other products that the company is building. Other instances of AI one might encounter include face recognition, image cropping using saliency detection and chatbots. Although the existence of AI is not entirely contingent on big data, (reinforcement learning being an example of that, where a model is trained by a set of rewards and punishments, while navigating and operating in an environment), most of machine learning practices require big data. Hence, companies that own the platforms in which the data is created appear at a larger advantage for further innovation and application in the machine learning field. For example, a leading AI company DeepMind was acquired by Google in 2014, where each is at a large advantage from the collaboration, with DeepMind being able to easier test their work on real world application, while benefiting from the extensive reserve of Google's data and infrastructures.
Recommender System Logic
One’s data is how one often pays for the free services in the attention business model. In regards to privacy, people often anthropomorphise algorithms that store and collect that data. However, an algorithm does not care; what matters more, is the platform’s collaboration with other companies, such as insurance or ad agencies and their sharing of user's personal data. The other aspect is the government, who’s law the platforms are obliged to abide by. Hacking might be a worthy concern, especially for a more known individual. However, there are a lot of platforms arising, such as line and the end-to-end encrypted WhatsApp, which at least ensures that the transfer of data cannot be hacked. Just like navigating a real city, the immersive internet can be dangerous in times. One should take some time to understand the implications on their privacy setting across various platforms, as there are options within platforms to minimize data collection.
Emerging from the above, the privacy concern may be divided into personal (hacking), institutional (biases based on one's data), legal (government surveillance), and commercial/political (promotion and skewing of perception). All four concerns are different in nature, and would need to be dealt with according to which one is more important for an individual. One option would be to delete and disable all the browser cookies.
Solutions for privacy concern can vary according to the type of concern.
Privacy
End-to-end Encryption
A lot of what platforms know about the user comes from HTTP Cookies, which are a pieces of data that are stored on the user’s device, collected by browsing a website, which, while also used for website performance optimization, can also be shared among the platforms, posing privacy concerns. Most platforms rely on HTTP cookies to function. In 2018 EU implemented the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which requires all websites to show a disclaimer of cookie usage. It is expected that with time, more regulations will arise due to a popular demand.
Basic HTTP Cookie Logic
Who runs these gatherings?
It is often the case that virtual gathering platforms spill over into the physical world. Famously, the tweets from the US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk impact the US stock market prices. Similarly, computer games such as League of Legends, which foster large communities online, also organise and stream tournaments. Just the sheer value of the platforms, LoL making a revenue of $1-2 billion a year, while Twitter’s market capitalisation in 2017 was valued at $25.6 billion, demonstrates their very much real presence and impact in the world.
All in all, there is a lot of money in virtual gatherings. Facebook, as the 6th world’s most valued company globally now is a dominant force, having a massive advantage when it comes to the development of other spaces and tools. The extension of Facebook’s world into the virtual reality hence becomes largely more accessible, and one must not underestimate the significance of accessibility for succeeding in the tech market.
Various antitrust laws are in place to prevent monopolies, and 2019-2020 in the US was spent investigating the monopolies that the tech giants that Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google have become. Government intervention is underway to break down the tech giant monopolies. If the companies end up being broken down, new better opportunities may emerge for competition within the virtual gathering architecture.
“The Justice Department has been working to file an antitrust complaint against Google, followed by separate suits against the search giant from state attorneys general. Antitrust investigations of Amazon, Apple and Facebook are also underway at the Justice Department, the Federal Trade Commission and four dozen state attorneys general.”
- The New York Times
Ownership
U.S. Tech Company Values
The Attention Business Model
The attention business model dominates the virtual gathering market, and has proven to be a tremendous success. It allows for a wide variety of platforms to emerge, accessibility to which provides a little barrier for entry.
Other platforms, less commonly so, rely on subscriptions and purchasing or are open-source. This revenue model directly impacts the very build-up of the platform, hence is often considered at an early stage of development. Such models also might be part of the company’s future vision, while many do not even introduce the advertisement until the platform’s valuation skyrockets, such as Facebook, who did so in 2007 once their valuation reached $15 billion.
Community size is valuable in monetary terms, even if ads are not implemented yet.
One might differentiate between various reasons for staying on the platform. Some platforms, like many chat apps and video conferencing services only have one reason to engage - the service that it provides, and the time spent will correlate to how easy and smooth the service, or how many other users there are. However, other platforms, predominantly social media and social VR often establish an engagement-driven business model, with the incentive to have the users spend the most time there. Followers on Instagram, credits on Animals crossing, all might be a strong driver for spending countless hours engaging, tapping into the psychology of habit-forming, providing an action-reward sequence. While all platforms are on a spectrum of incentive intensity, some go great length to create an addictive environment, all eventually boiling down to levels in a game. A lot of work is put into maximizing the engagement.
Revenue Model and Economic Significance
Attention Business Model Logic
In-platform economy
The Attention Business Model does not only provide a platform that operates in with great value, but also the businesses which advertise in it. While the public of a platform may or may not care about being advertised to, the businesses certainly desire to be noticed with a high conversion rate. Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the systematic process of increasing the percentage of website visitors who take a desired action — be that filling out a form, becoming customers, or otherwise. Therefore, the barrier to entry is also reduced for the businesses that operate on platforms, so a lot of new firms flourish virtually.
In-platform economies may or may not be connected to the external currencies. Sansar, for example, provides a marketplace for the users’ creations (outfits, avatars objects and worlds), with their own currency - Sansar dollars, which can be bought using US dollars with a conversion rate of S$250:$1. The in-platform economy can also exist in an isolated sense, like in animal crossing, where credits are earned over time, and can then be used as currency in the market of the game. Instagram, on the other hand, exists at the periphery of real and virtual, where it exists as a virtual marketplace for physical businesses, which do a fair share of promotion and merchandising on the platform.
Not even a bunch of computer science degrees can teach you about how each brick of the virtual gathering environment is laid out, but as architects, we can and have started to discover and think on some key concepts and dynamics at play behind the creation and operation of this limitless parallel universe we call the immersive internet.