The concept of a media space emerged from the need to support both social and technical practices of collaborative work. A media space is an electronic environment where people can work together, even when they are not in the same place or at the same time. It allows people to create real-time visual and acoustic environments that span physically separate areas and control the recording, accessing, and replaying of images and sounds from those environments. The media space was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the mid-1980s, initially to support cross-site work between Palo Alto, California, and Portland, Oregon. The media space enabled people to work together and "be" together, facilitating both social and task-specific activities across time and space. The media space was influenced by various technologies and projects, including video conferencing, the "Hole-in-Space" art project, and the Picturephone. The development of the media space was driven by the need to support collaborative work, including informal interactions, spontaneous conversations, and general awareness of people and events at other sites. The media space was not a single technological goal but rather a result of the work of a diverse group of people exploring new ways of working and collaborating. The media space was used for a variety of purposes, including awareness, chance encounters, locating colleagues, video phone conversations, group discussions, recording and replaying video records, project support, presentations, and social activities. It supported a broad range of working activities, including meetings, project work, and social interactions. The media space was not intended to replace face-to-face interactions but to provide an environment for geographically distributed groups to work together. The media space continued to evolve and was used in various environments, including the Palo Alto-Portland link and other locations. It demonstrated the importance of integrating technology and work activities, and the value of further evolution and iteration of connecting colleagues across space and/or time with video, audio, and computing technologies. The media space remains an important tool for supporting collaborative work and maintaining group working relationships.The concept of a media space emerged from the need to support both social and technical practices of collaborative work. A media space is an electronic environment where people can work together, even when they are not in the same place or at the same time. It allows people to create real-time visual and acoustic environments that span physically separate areas and control the recording, accessing, and replaying of images and sounds from those environments. The media space was developed at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in the mid-1980s, initially to support cross-site work between Palo Alto, California, and Portland, Oregon. The media space enabled people to work together and "be" together, facilitating both social and task-specific activities across time and space. The media space was influenced by various technologies and projects, including video conferencing, the "Hole-in-Space" art project, and the Picturephone. The development of the media space was driven by the need to support collaborative work, including informal interactions, spontaneous conversations, and general awareness of people and events at other sites. The media space was not a single technological goal but rather a result of the work of a diverse group of people exploring new ways of working and collaborating. The media space was used for a variety of purposes, including awareness, chance encounters, locating colleagues, video phone conversations, group discussions, recording and replaying video records, project support, presentations, and social activities. It supported a broad range of working activities, including meetings, project work, and social interactions. The media space was not intended to replace face-to-face interactions but to provide an environment for geographically distributed groups to work together. The media space continued to evolve and was used in various environments, including the Palo Alto-Portland link and other locations. It demonstrated the importance of integrating technology and work activities, and the value of further evolution and iteration of connecting colleagues across space and/or time with video, audio, and computing technologies. The media space remains an important tool for supporting collaborative work and maintaining group working relationships.