The OpenVIMO Platform: A Tutorial on Building and Managing Large-scale Online Experiments involving Videoconferencing

Online experiments leveraging video conferencing offer significant advantages for studying human social interactions, including enhanced participant diversity and scalability. However, challenges include complex adjustments, privacy risks, software requirements, limited customization, and remote participant management. openVIMO is a software framework for creating video-based online interaction experiments built to address these challenges. It operates on open-source technologies, allowing deployment on researchers' servers without relying on third-party services. openVIMO facilitates the creation of web-based experiments with video calls, live monitoring of participants' progress or interactions, and comprehensive data collection, including audio and video. Moreover, it supports highly customizable experimental protocols and dynamic expansion by the research community. This tutorial will describe the functionality and design rationale underlying openVIMO. Moreover, it will outline possible application scenarios and provide examples for developing and managing studies using the platform. Finally, attendees will gain hands-on experience implementing a small-scale study of their design.