CoStream: Co-construction of Shared Experiences through Mobile Live Video Sharing

Mobile media sharing is an increasingly popular form of social media interaction. Research has shown that asynchronous sharing fosters and maintains social connections and serves as a memory aid. More recently, researchers have investigated the potential for mobile media sharing as a mechanism for providing additional event-related information to spectators in a stadium. In this paper, we describe CoStream, a novel system for mobile live sharing of user-generated video in-situ during events. Developed iteratively with users, CoStream goes beyond prior work by providing a strong real-time coupling to the event, leveraging users’ social connections to provide multiple perspectives on the ongoing action. Field trials demonstrate that real time sharing of different perspectives on the same event has the potential to provide fundamentally new experiences of same-place events, such as concerts or stadium sports. We discuss how CoStream enriches social interactions, increases context, social and spatial awareness, and thus encourages active spectatorship. We further contribute key requirements for the design of future interfaces supporting the co-construction of shared experiences during events, in-situ