In their analysis of human interaction behaviour in the early mediated spaces of Xerox EuroPARC, Christian Heath, Paul Luff and Abigail Sellen discussed the limitations of mediated spaces that primarily provided a āface-to-face, head and shoulders viewā, stressing that āface-to-face interaction constitutes a relatively small part of working together and is one amongst a diverse configuration of spatial and bodily arrangements through which personnel participate in each otherās activities and accomplish the ābusiness at handāā (Heath et al. 1995: 177).
One conclusion of the Media Space project is that āvideo technology which primarily provides a face-to-face orientation to users, fails to support peripheral monitoring and peripheral participation, does not provide access to tools, artefacts and the usersā local environment, and introduces unanticipated asymmetries into the interaction between users, is unlikely to support even the most basic forms of organisational workā (ibid.).
Based on their prior research on organizational group behaviour, Heath et al. stress that collaborative workplaces in general reveal generic features that are also relevant to mediated environments. In a collaborative setting, co-workers develop āa body of informal and tacit practices for distributing information to each other and coordinating simultaneously multiple activities. These practices allow personnel to distribute information to colleagues and to monitor each otherās activities whilst apparently engaged in a single, individual taskā. (ibid: 176).
