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The phrase "interactivity" has been bounced around for many years in the fields like infomatics, information design, multimedia, and interactive art, and has assumed many connotations. Typically, the technological term Interactivity is supposed to be a kind of freedom. Interactivity might "free the user" to create their own narrative, or sometimes, free the user from the domination of the author. Chris Dodge, for instance, has called it a
...Paradigmatic shift in the authorship of artistic content, where the fulfillment of artistic content is deferred to the viewer, [and] puts the role of the artist into a unique position. We are now the creators of deferred artistic potentials, leading to self-initiated insights on the part of the viewer, rather than a static expression whose content must be uncovered by the inspecting external agent. (Dodge, 1997)
While other interpretations of interactivity have been promoted, by far the most common is this notion of the emancipation of the viewer. The amount of emancipation is always open to negotiation. When the user is free to click on a door in Myst, this provides a little interactivity. Multiple buttons, as found on video game controllers, provide extra interactivity. One can imagine interactive systems based on spoken commands, although such systems often offer little more complexity of interaction than keyboard-based systems in common use. The potential for interactivity is generally viewed in the technical community to be far greater, and a variety of producers of technology continue to look for new methods of more seamless interaction.