+++------- Synopsis
We Are Not Alone means that this tool can be used only by two or more users, in contrast with with the normal use of the Internet when you can see everything by yourself, and hence interaction with other users is required.
While surfing a web site, other users could be doing it at the same time but you cannot sense this: you feel alone like any other user. Using WANA you can see whether you are alone or instead other users are sharing with you the same place.
The feeling we wanted users to perceive is something like a stranger touching you almost physically. We tired to investigate how would people react trying to communicate on the web in a semi-physical way rather than a textual one (email, chat, etc...).
A track on the background is drawn every time the names of two users collide. The track is a binary code generated combining the first letter of both names. This means that two people meeting together are only a series of 0 and 1 to the computer.
The background you can see a the beginning are the last fifty tracks left by previous users.
Afterward we developed a chat module as well in order to let people get in touch textually anyway, sharing messages and feelings.
Moreover the local time for each user is displayed in the user map module, enabling you to know where they come from. This minds to the world wide web extension.
The original software is no longer working.
Here is a movie showing a work session:
>> QuickTime movie (9 Mb.)
+++-------Technical diagram
The following is the technical layout of the We Are Not Alone net system:
We Are Not Alone uses NowServer for XMLSocket communication
and a custom Java daemon to monitor data streams and handle database posts.
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