Abstract

Immersive, situated, and ubiquitous analytics (IA/SA/UA) envision scenarios where heterogeneous devices can be used in combination and multiple users can work in collaboration around data. While there are many research prototypes in this domain, there is a lack of a common platform to build upon. Furthermore, many prototypes build on proprietary game engines such as Unreal or Unity, which make distribution and reuse more difficult, require niche knowledge which is not often found in enterprise environments, as well as being prone to changing license agreements. We therefore advocate for the use of open standards, such as WebXR in order to overcome such restrictions. During the last year we created two iterations of an open, malleable, and collaborative platform for IA/SA/UA: DashSpace. We published both DashSpace as well as a its core WebXR framework Spatialstrates on GitHub. DashSpace and Spatialstrates build on the know-how and technical synergies between Web-based IA/SA frameworks, such as VRIA and Wizualization, UA frameworks such as Vistrates, and dynamic-media environments such as Webstrates, all converging together since 2019, through the binding affordances that the reliance on Web technologies enables. We deem the tutorial framing particularly well suited to introduce DashSpace in depth to a broader audience of IA/SA/UA researchers, with the goal of creating a growing and interoperable platform for these interaction flavors. We envision to grow the platform and create a “component store” or package repository with self-contained components and packages that can be mixed and matched within the same platform without the need to install new applications on multiple devices or re-implementing common features.

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