Unfortunately, there are still no easy or stable definitions for the dynamics of human interaction that LAM researchers are exploring. Thus, it would be difficult to negotiate a single, overarching meaning for improvisation from the vast array of possible definitions. Rather, the totality of the compendium of knowledge developed by placing scholars and researchers in virtual dialogue would eventually inscribe the outlines of an articulated, emergent definition of improvisation, drawn from multiple fields and thereby moving beyond the preoccupations of any one. What we can say for now is that improvisation must be open–that is, open to inputs, open to contingency; a real-time, real-world mode of production. Thus, in the 21st Century, scholarly work on improvisation, like improvisation itself, is international and multicultural, proceeding from a panoply of theoretical positions that revise existing histories and construct new historiographies.

My conclusion here is that the direct study of improvisation will be vital to the production of new ways of using information technology - not only in the arts, but also across the board. Human identity, particularly in negotiation with new technologies, is continually reinscribed through processes of interactivity and improvisation, thereby demonstrating its centrality to our birthright as human beings. Thus, the interdisciplinary study of how meaning is exchanged in real-time interaction will be crucial to the development of new user interfaces, new forms of art, more sophisticated interactive computer applications, and much more - simply because improvisation is not only what people do when they play jazz or bluegrass, but also what they are doing when they play video games, surf the Net, or decide how to cross Main Street.