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Keeper: An Online Synchronous Conversation Environment Informed by In-Person Facilitation Practices

Facilitation, or the craft of using specific tools, methods, and practices to influence the way groups gather and converse as they strive for a desired goal, requires the nuanced craft of a facilitator to guide multidimensional, complex conversations. In recent years, facilitators have adapted their craft to online contexts. However, online communication platforms are not designed with the unique needs of complex dialogue or knowledge of facilitators in mind, creating friction in complex online conversations. This poster is an early-stage exploration and evaluation of an online synchronous audio conversation platform, Keeper, designed and informed by facilitation practices to aid complex conversations online. In this paper, we define three initial goals of the platform: 1) set the tone for the conversation, 2) ease the flow of these online conversations, and 3) improve social presence online. After an initial controlled study with 107 participants across 30 conversations, we observe that tone and ease of synchronous conversations could be improved with the introduction of this tool, and patterns that suggest strong social presence in the tool.