From PRIMI to PRIMIFaces: Technical Concepts for Selective Information Disclosure

Instant messaging platforms facilitate coordination in workgroups by providing users with mutual information on their presence and availability, allowing for ad-hoc conversations with little disturbance. For this purpose they typically capture, process, and present information from and to the users involved. Thereby, they have to address a fundamental trade-off: on the one hand users want and need up-to-the-minute information about each other, yet on the other hand the users whose information is captured have a legitimate right for privacy and the users whom the information is presented have a legitimate need for avoiding frequent disruptions. In this paper we present advanced technical concepts for selective information disclosure. We introduce the concept of face-based instant messaging platforms that allow end-users on one side to flexibly integrate static and dynamic data sources, and to easily specify their preferences as to the data to be shared as well as the granularity and the timing of the sharing, and on the other side to easily specify their preferences for notification