Video interaction: a research agenda

The topic of this special issue is the broadened use of video and the need to articulate a research agenda that addresses its new opportunities and challenges. This agenda, which we argue should be labelled ‘‘video interaction,’’ is influenced by both emerging practices and technical developments. In the widest sense, we refer to video interaction as a research area concerned with emerging technologies and social practices in an increasingly flattened hierarchy between, on the one hand, what used to be a well-defined group of production professionals, and on the other hand, the masses of passive viewers of the same media. This transition happens at the same time as video traffic has become the bulk of data communication on the Internet [2]. The same shift is now happening in mobile data. Cisco reports that mobile video traffic exceeded 50 % for the first time in 2012. They predict that the numbers for video will continue to increase dramatically. In 5 years, the amount of mobile video data is projected to increase 16-fold, ending up at over two-thirds of the entire data traffic [12]. Obviously, downloading and streaming of movies and TV series are the big drivers in this development, but there are a number of other things happening that warrant a new approach to understanding interaction with video content, beyond the notion of the user as a viewer in the traditional sense. The practices surrounding moving image technology are now transcending consumption of traditional media, and becoming integrated with other interactive services and social media [2]. In this massive growth of video online, there are a number of parallel trends regarding how video is consumed, produced, shared, and interacted with that we argue require a re-conceptualisation of the area. In the following, we will map out the changed use of video and then analyze its opportunities and challenges, and explain the need for a coherent research approach to video interaction. In particular, the trends we want to align are a shift to user-generated video content and to mobile technology, as well as a continuation of the trend of increased interaction in viewing (iTV). First, new ways of producing video content has emerged, enabled by the availability of cheap production tools and high bandwidth communication networks. It emerged with the use of both analogue and digital video cameras for consumers, and continued with video recording facilities on mobile phones [30]. The cost and effort of sharing and distributing the content have also diminished with the expansion of the fixed Internet. Live video production is now on the verge of the same kind of democratization of means of production and broader adoption by nonprofessional users. Through highly visible examples such as live broadcasts from the Arabic Spring and other news events around the world, as well as more mundane practices of broadcasting from university lectures and local events, live video has shown potential for communicating and sharing experiences with remote viewers. Second, we see an expansion of services that utilize mobile technology in a broad sense, and that are catering to O. Juhlin G. Zoric (&) A. Engstrom Stockholm, Sweden e-mail: goga@mobilelifecentre.org