Emergence of multipresence - a theoretical underpinning

'Anytime anywhere' and 'immersive' information and communication technologies have penetrated all spheres of our life. Because of these technologies, an individual can be present in multiple environments either real or virtual at a given time or in a time frame. Such technology driven multipresence has emerged as a prominent behavioural phenomenon today. Multipresence might have significant influence on an individual's behaviour as well as on team, organisation and society. Despite being such a prevalent and important behavioural phenomenon, there has been limited research and literature in this area. In this conceptual paper, we explore and refine the concept of multipresence. We start with the exploration of concept of presence, which forms the basis for understanding multipresence. We further discuss various aspects of multipresence from the literature. We also introduce a new revised definition and new concepts about multipresence. Finally, we discuss possible implications of such behaviour on performance of an individual and suggest potential future research opportunities in this area.

“随时随地”以及“沉浸式”的信息与通信技术已渗透到我们生活的方方面面。借助这些技术，一个人在某一特定时刻或时间段内，可以同时“置身”于多个真实或虚拟环境中。如今，这种由技术驱动的“多重在场”已成为一种突出的行为现象。“多重在场”可能会对个人行为以及团队、组织和社会产生重大影响。尽管这是一种极为普遍且重要的行为现象，但该领域的研究和相关文献却十分有限。在这篇概念性论文中，我们对“多重在场”的概念展开探索并加以完善。我们首先探究“在场”的概念，它是理解“多重在场”的基础。我们进一步从相关文献中探讨“多重在场”的各个方面。我们还提出了关于“多重在场”的全新修订定义及一些新概念。最后，我们讨论这种行为对个人表现可能产生的影响，并对该领域未来潜在的研究方向提出建议。