Social presence and emotional attitude in the PhotoShare tele-application

Summative evaluations usually concentrate on efficiency and effectiveness. For tele-applications aiming at an informal, home environment, however, satisfaction appears to be a more appropriate criterion. To optimize it, we need a better understanding of what brings about satisfaction in using tele-applications. This paper investigates the effects of the video-conferencing component of a tele-application on social presence and satisfaction measured as an emotional attitude. This investigation took place as part of a summative evaluation of the PhotoShare tele-application, a tele-application for viewing photos (e.g., family or holiday snapshots) together while the presenter and the viewer are at different, remote locations.