This in turn facilitates casual interaction.
Peepholes is a low cost alternative.
Instead of video, iconic presence indicators show the availability of people in a virtual community. If people are absent, a user can 'ambush' them by asking the system to announce their return. When interaction is desired, people can easily contact one another because communication software is just a button-press away. Keywords Groupware, contact facilitation, awareness, coordination. Yet casual interaction is problematic in distributed communities.