  Spontaneous multi-party interaction - conversation among groups of three or
more participants - is part of daily life. While automated modeling of such
interactions has received increased attention in ubiquitous computing research,
there is little applied research on the organization of this highly dynamic and
spontaneous sociable interaction within small groups. We report here on an
applied conversation analytic study of small-group sociable talk, emphasizing
structural and temporal aspects that can inform computational models. In
particular, we examine the mechanics of multiple simultaneous conversational
floors - how participants initiate a new floor amidst an on-going floor, and
how they subsequently show their affiliation with one floor over another. We
also discuss the implications of these findings for the design of "smart"
multi-party applications.
