The years 1993-1995. The ubiquitous computing concept had taken hold, and many of us started to think more freely beyond the traditional computer with its keyboard and mouse.

Integration of live video into our computers also started happening in the early 90s, and it represented a further broadening of the interaction scope, not only could we display streaming video, but video capture would from now on be considered a basic input type. Work based mediaspaces had been in wide use within Xerox PARC and many other research labs. Early usage indicated that media spaces were used more often as a means to be aware of each other than as a direct communication device (people would often use the phone if they wanted to talk!)

Casablanca aimed at addressing multiple known issues with media spaces: tendency of intrusion and lack of privacy, as well as displeasing images and sound from over-stressed communication lines. The approach was called, "Less is more", and it was basically a specialized media space that supported awareness; the challenge was to understand what kind of situations would call for what kind of awareness. The project was started in 1995 at Interval Research Corporation. The project included an extensive ethnograpic mapping of a dozen of households with emphasis on how the members communicated with each other and with people outside.The project continued for a couple of years, as described in the summary paper by D. Hindus et al: Casablanca: designing social communication devices for the home. ISBN:1-58113-327-8, pp. 325-332; it was presented at CHI 2001 in Seattle.