I agree that seeing where someone is reading (with blobs moving around in your visual field while you are trying to read) is not good. It doesn't correspond to any physical experience of being in a room with someone, or any positive, helpful experience of collaboration. There's a reason we don't attend lectures with laser pointers strapped to our heads, to make visible where everyone's eyeballs are looking on the projector screen or whiteboard. When I'm reading a magazine in a waiting room, I'm not socially isolated by the fact that the reading experience is not a synchronous collaboration with other people around the world.
The fact that this idea was even proposed and explored makes me think there are some common-sense principles and ground rules that are not being followed, like a first filter after brainstorming new digital experiences. For example, hmm, brainstorming here, part of working in the same room as other people is you can hear their phones buzzing when they get texts. What if we made an app that gets notified when one of your friends' phones buzzes, for any reason, and it makes your phone buzz at a lower volume, so it's more like you're in the same room even if you are on the other side of the world? No, that is a bad idea because it would just be annoying and distracting.
One should ask, under what circumstances do people currently read the same thing at the same time, in each other's presence? What creates a feeling of presence in this case? What makes the experience feel better or worse? Do we even care what strangers are reading? In a meeting, people are usually reading on their own screens or pages, or one person reads to another or to the group. There are situations like reading the same sign at a museum exhibit or art gallery, where there is presence with a stranger (which may or may not even be a positive thing). I think the first thing my brain needs to know is how many people are standing around next to me. Reddit threads have a little indicator that says something like "17 people here." To have a blurry cursor blob suddenly moving across my screen without an indication of how many people are "here" is disorienting. That doesn't happen in real life unless someone is out of sight playing with a laser pointer or flashlight, or there's a sniper.
I really would hope this would be 101-level thinking for this field.
I've worked at workplaces that had a video "portal" between two office locations, and that worked fine, if you could choose whether you want to work in view of the camera.
> seeing where someone is reading [...] doesn't correspond to any physical experience
I don't know if I agree with that. You can follow someone's gaze fairly easily. At a train stop, you can see if they're reading the map, watching birds or what have you. You can tell if someone is looking at something that interests you as well.
The fact that this idea was even proposed and explored makes me think there are some common-sense principles and ground rules that are not being followed, like a first filter after brainstorming new digital experiences. For example, hmm, brainstorming here, part of working in the same room as other people is you can hear their phones buzzing when they get texts. What if we made an app that gets notified when one of your friends' phones buzzes, for any reason, and it makes your phone buzz at a lower volume, so it's more like you're in the same room even if you are on the other side of the world? No, that is a bad idea because it would just be annoying and distracting.
One should ask, under what circumstances do people currently read the same thing at the same time, in each other's presence? What creates a feeling of presence in this case? What makes the experience feel better or worse? Do we even care what strangers are reading? In a meeting, people are usually reading on their own screens or pages, or one person reads to another or to the group. There are situations like reading the same sign at a museum exhibit or art gallery, where there is presence with a stranger (which may or may not even be a positive thing). I think the first thing my brain needs to know is how many people are standing around next to me. Reddit threads have a little indicator that says something like "17 people here." To have a blurry cursor blob suddenly moving across my screen without an indication of how many people are "here" is disorienting. That doesn't happen in real life unless someone is out of sight playing with a laser pointer or flashlight, or there's a sniper.
I really would hope this would be 101-level thinking for this field.
I've worked at workplaces that had a video "portal" between two office locations, and that worked fine, if you could choose whether you want to work in view of the camera.