Peripheral participation in video-mediated communication

The importance of overhearing, and other ways of monitoring communicative b ehaviour not explicitly directed at oneself, has been illustrated in numero us ethnographic studies of computer-supported cooperative work. This paper is concerned with a particular form of monitoring. A "peripheral participan t" is defined as someone who has a legitimate interest in monitoring a join t task (being carried out by some "primary participants") but who is not ac tively involved in carrying out the task themselves. The concept is illustr ated through field studies of telemedical consultation and related to other analyses of overhearing. Two experiments are reported where participatory status was manipulated using a role-play task. Ratings of interpersonal awa reness, measures of gaze direction and recall of the conversation all indic ate that the task successfully operationalized the distinction between prim ary and peripheral participation. In addition, the experiment manipulated t he visibility of the peripheral participant to a remote primary participant . This was shown to have an effect on the remote primary participant's inte rpersonal awareness of the peripheral participant. Potential mechanisms for this effect are considered. It is concluded that peripheral participation is a potentially important form of involvement that needs to be considered when designing and configuring equipment for video-mediated cooperative wor k. (C) 2000 Academic Press.