Understanding and Supporting Live Streaming in Non-gaming Contexts

Abstract

Live streaming has gained worldwide traction due to affordable digital video devices and high-speed Internet access. Besides video games, live streaming users share a variety of non-gaming content, such as civic engagement, knowledge and experience, and even traditional cultural practices (i.e., intangible cultural heritage). However, because video game live streaming is the primary target of mainstream streaming platforms, little prior research has explored the practices and challenges of the communities of non-gaming streamers who share knowledge or showcase and promote cultural practices through live streams, and few computational tools and systems have been designed and developed to support these stakeholders' unique needs for engaging and communicating with their communities more efficiently and meaningfully. The goal of my research is to understand emerging practices of non-gaming streamers and their communities, and to design new tools for these streamers, viewers, and other stakeholders to better support knowledge sharing and cultural heritage preservation through live streaming. I first conduct qualitative and mixed-method studies to understand various non-gaming streaming practices for sharing knowledge, sharing experiences, and safeguarding intangible cultural heritage, all of which are prevalent in China but have not gained comparable traction elsewhere. These studies reveal the stark differences of non-gaming live streams with video-gaming streams, and show that for knowledge sharing and cultural heritage live streaming, context loss, information overload, and limited communication modalities are key challenges for stakeholders. Building on these findings, I design, deploy, and evaluate novel user interfaces for non-gaming live streaming users to better support their needs in knowledge sharing and experience sharing contexts. StreamWiki is a tool that leverages viewers during live streams to produce useful archives of the interactive learning experience which can facilitate in-stream and post hoc learning. StreamSketch enables viewers and streamers to engage during live streams through multiple modalities, including sketch and text. The evaluations of these live streaming interfaces show their usefulness in non-gaming contexts, but also reveal remaining challenges of how to better engage viewers with increased complexity of streaming interfaces. In conclusion, I summarize the key insights from my studies and discuss future research opportunities in non-gaming live streaming.