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Many systems have used video to support formal distributed meetings. Rrecent research, however, indicates that most workplace interactions are not group meetings. Instead they occur spontaneously for short periods of time, frequently between two people who discuss topics that build on prior discussions. In this paper, we characterise these informal interactions, describe their value, enumerate the functions they accomplish. We consider ways to design video-based systems to support such informal interactions among different types of distributed groups. We discuss some existing applications that support various aspects of informal communication and consider ways to build on those ideas to build systems designed specifically for opportunistic and spontaneous encounters.