Interplay

As sports have become increasingly professionalized, the gap has widened between those who actually play and those who view from afar. Legions of couch potatoes argue sports in front of the TV set, but have no real interaction with the athletes, games or sports they watch.

The InterPlay system transforms the spectator participation experience from passive to active. The experience created is one of working together with those who manage the event — referees, umpires, judges — to form a collective opinion about what has transpired. The system uses iterative, visual feedback loops (based loosely on the Delphi technique for group decision making) to encourage consensus building through participatory learning about the rules of the sport, the skills of the athletes, and the actions of the competitors themselves. Explained here in the context of use for a sporting event, the system’s procedures, mechanisms and concepts are valid for a much wider range of opinion generating, advice giving and decision-making activities.

InterPlay allows spectators to feel like they too are players — part of the action in a way simultaneously both intimate and public.

Audience members participate in a continuous cycle of observing, judging and learning that forms an active information conduit between audience and event. The goal is sophisticated, direct association with the event using communication technologies with precision to strengthen perception, enhance learning, and establish connection.

InterPlay is a system, and as such, has within it all the inherent obstacles of implementation to be expected when people and equipment must work together in close coordination. However, it can bridge cultures and levels of knowledge, often greater difficulties to overcome. Some of these potential obstacles and drawbacks are discussed below.