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Chat Cirlces
Trying to have an audio conversation with another audience member while a presenter is also talking might prove to be too difficult, even if you can avoid the social stigma of talking over someone else. Text conversations are easier to manage, but right now they are sent to the entire world. There are two main ways we could support distinct text conversations: spatializing text (degrading its fidelity by dropping letters) or by relying on cone-of-silence like objects to limit the propagation of text.
We could support distinct text conversations in much the same way as audio; spatializing distant text and providing a cone-of-silence-like mechanic for chat.
In this model, we stick with an explicit object-based hierarchical model of how multiple levels of chat could be managed. By default, chat would go to everyone in the large rectangle (the carriage from the spatial-slides model, for instance). Using a button on the HUD, users could create a new conversation circle around them. It would start small by default, but as people walk into it, it would expand to make room. Each circle can have a name attached to it and it can be set to be public or private. I think a tab-style chat interface that had a tab for each conversation you were in would make sense. For example to send a message to the Media Lab conversation you would use the chat box on the bottom of that tab.
Aspects of a conversation might be automatically made visible to other people. For instance, whenever a message is received the circle could pulse or glow slightly to show the relative activity of that conversation. This is a useful signal to the presenter, as well.
Although this limits the potential arrangements of conversations — you can't have a conversation with someone in another group — it uses the spatiality of the room to show the strength of your connections. It shows other people who you've chosen to sit near. This mirrors the physical world in a positive way. Being only one place at a time means that where you are is socially meaningful. Much like you can read a room at a party, you could read the virtual audience based on where they're standing and who they're near.
In a federated model, there would be no distinction made about which world you're in. You would probably see avatars from only your world, but chat according to where you are in the space, not based on the world you're connected to.
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