We firstly outline what Tickertape allows people to do and then illustrate a range of different ways in which Tickertape has been employed. We refer to the publishers of events as groups . Event subscriptions can be based on group identity and, optionally, event content. The selected information is then generated into colour-coded scrolling Tickertape messages. Tickertape is highly tailorable, allowing users to dynamically define their own groups and event generators from a potentially infinite number of sources.
Some groups can allow people to post messages, i.e., produce an event, as well as receive messages.
Other groups, such as a news group, have a uni-directional production of events. A bidirectional group is primarily used for awareness and interaction between people. To receive event messages, users define a subscription in a configuration file. A basic subscription consists of the group name, and a specification of the minimum and maximum time the message will scroll around the window. Senders of messages define the specific time their message should scroll.