Shared events build community. Whether a wedding, a rock concert, or a conference, there is no better way to make connections with other people than to experience an occasion together. But what if you can’t join the event in person? Or what if you want to share an event with someone who can’t be there? Can the feeling of community be translated to those people?
BeThere is our answer to that question. BeThere is a distributed application that allows people present at an event to contribute live media streams from connected mobile devices, and allows those who aren’t there to participate virtually. Our system is unique in that it aggregates multiple feeds in multiple modalities — whether video, audio, pictures or text — in real time, creating a sense of immersion even for those who can’t be there.
Our current implementation is a proof-of-concept mockup which shows how the app might work for a few specific events — a concert, a wedding, a conference. But these examples just scratch the surface. Sports events, political events, emergencies — whatever the event, the aggregation of multiple feeds of real-time user-contributed content can create presence in a way that was never before possible. Using BeThere, you can be there, even when you can’t.
