Data Analysis on a Domestic Media Space Connecting Internationally Distributed Families

Abstract

Families separated by distance face the challenge of limited bonding, affecting their opportunities to connect and sustain their relationships. FamilySong is a domestic Media Space that fosters feelings of togetherness via synchronized music-listening. FamilySong was used in an experiment that ran for six months, with six distributed families. Detailed data collection, e.g. interaction routines and music sharing patterns, was gathered through the system. These data provide interesting insights into the social behavior of families separated by distance and how they connect over those distances. In this work, we built software to analyze the experiment's data. The procedures and insights described in this paper will be useful for other researchers and practitioners involved in Information and Communications Technologies projects, making the FamilySong analysis with this software an exemplar for efficient data analysis.