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Project

Conch

Audio conferences have a number of striking downsides�we lose many of the familiar physical signals from other people that help us judge what other people want to do. In this project, we explore how a new currency for conversation might be added to audio conferences to provide a new channel for non-verbal communication. We're experimenting with different uses for this currency, such as managing the agenda, conversation turn-taking, or length of speaking. Adding this currency provides participants with meaningful, non-verbal ways to communicate through giving currency to people in the meeting you want to support, or spending that currency to guide the meeting in directions in which you want it to move. Mediated environments typically lack these rich backchannels, and we hope that adding new kinds of channels will change the power structures in meetings in a positive way.