Three degrees of influence in virtual workshops: towards an understanding of co-creative facilitation practice in technologically mediated settings

Virtual workshops look here to stay, however much of the recent discourse fo-cuses on methods, tools, techniques and routines in abstraction from practice and practitioner. Collaborations in virtual space are necessarily changed and shaped by their technologically mediated nature. Therefore, it is imperative to enter into reflective dialogue to effectively develop future participatory and co-creative design practice in virtual settings. Several significant phenomena, oc-curring within virtual workshops, have been identified through focused co-reflection by expert design facilitators. Duality is used as a rhetorical device to explore these phenomena as complex elements that are expressions of dynamic and intertwined influences within the virtual setting. These elements are simul-taneously experienced as both enablers and barriers in virtual workshops, and are negotiated through practice. This paper positions these elements as objects for critical reflection within a propositional model of three expanding degrees of influence; stage, setting, and environment.