SocialSoftware

What is “Social Software”

Software that enables people to rendezvous, connect, or collaborate through computer-mediated communication1.

1. “Social software.” Wikipedia. 26-Apr-2007. 26-Apr-2007. ,http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Social_software

What is Social Software? Actually not a well-defined term Means different things to different

people Example: Include older media, such as

email and mailing lists? Most users restrict “social software” to

more recent types, such as blogs, wikis, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, etc.

What is Social Software? Generally speaking, most people

would agree on the following about Social Software: It facilitates back-and-forth discourse

– not a one-way distribution of ideas1

It facilitates the formation of “bottom-up” online communities

1. Matt Vilano. “Social Revolution.” Campus Technology. January, 2007. pp 40 - 45

Bottom-Up Communities1

Membership is voluntary Members establish online

reputations within the community Mission and governance of the

community is defined and controlled by the members themselves

1. Social software.” Wikipedia. 26-Apr-2007. 26-Apr-2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Social_software>

Top-Down Communities Bottom-up communities contrast

with those that are top-down Controlled by an external authority Users’ access usually is limited Users may not have joined voluntarily Frequently work-related

Social Software Examples Several types

Instant Messaging Text Chat Blogs & Microblogs Wikis Social Networking Social Bookmarking

The first two are important, but also very familiar

I will focus on the last ones

Blogs From Blogger.com1, a Google blog site

A blog is a web site, where you write stuff on an ongoing basis.

New stuff shows up at the top, so your visitors can read what's new.

Then they comment on it or link to it or email you. Or not.

Most blogs are simple – mainly online diaries

http://www.livejournal.com/ (Explore LJ)

1. “What’s a blog?”. 30-Apr-2007. <http://www.blogger.com/tour_start.g>

Blogs The significant ones are deeper and

more complex Commentary on important topics

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/ Include comments and blogrolls (links to

other blogs with shared interests) that can foster online communities

http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/ Have the potential to become one of

the more important aspects of the Web

Blogs Why are blogs so important?

They are easy to use and invite participation

They can be highly networked and can take full advantage of the Web

They are decentralized and offer the opportunity for free expression

Blogs: Easy to Use Anyone can publish a blog

Not difficult to learn Cheap As a consequence, the “blogosphere”

is growing astronomically

Blogosphere: Rapid Growth

It is clear blogs have caught on -- their number is growing exponentially1

The most rapidly adopted technology in history2

One caveat: how many of these blogs are active?

1. http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000493.html

2. http://redcouch.typepad.com/weblog/2005/05/chapter_2_why_b.html

Blogs: A New Medium1

Blogs have become influential in global politics

On the surface, this is not easy to understand Most blogs are personal and usually trivial Only a small number of Americans read blogs

4% in 2004 Bloggers are part-time volunteers, for the most

part doing it for fun rather than money

1. Daniel Drezner and Henry Farrell. “Web of Influence.” Nov/Dec 2004. <http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=2707&print=1>

Blogs: A New Medium Blogs have certain advantages over the

traditional media Much faster to publish

Allows them to focus quickly on breaking news Networked to each

Information can spread rapidly Not under the control of editors, publishers, etc.

Can focus on new or under-reported issues Not always good, of course. You need to take unedited

text with a grain of salt Repositories of expertise

Mainstream media staff generally are not experts with specialized, detailed knowledge – some bloggers are

Blogs: A New Medium Main influence – affecting the content of

mainstream media coverage Mainstream media leaders pay attention to

political blogs Political bloggers “keep watch on”

mainstream media publications Fact-checking and error correction Pressure to cover a topic that mainstream media

is ignoring The level of blogging is one barometer of

public interest in an issue

Microblogs: Twitter Allows users to send status

updates, or "tweets" from Cell phones IM services Facebook

Limit -- less than 140 characters Can be fairly trivial – “I am eating a

burger and fries for dinner.”

Microblogs: Twitter Has been seized on by politicians

and news media, and others http://twitter.com/BarackObama http://twitter.com/cnn University of Texas at San Antonio

http://twitter.com/engineeringutsa

Wikis Websites that allow a large number of

users to add and edit content in a collaborative manner1. The CS 101C wiki we used in Project 2 is an

example Different than blogs, in that wikis mainly

facilitate document-based collaboration.

1. “A Short Guide to Wikis.” A Project Locker Whitepaper. April, 2006. <http://www.zybic.com/wiki_whitepaper.pdf>

Wikis Most obvious successful wiki is

Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia Otherwise, wikis are not nearly as

widespread as blogs Many applications lie in the corporate

sector Internal documentation Collaborative teams Frequently bottom-up

Social Network Sites Web-based services that allow

individuals to:1

Construct a public or semi-public profile Choose and make visible a list of other

users with whom they share a connection View and traverse their list of connections

and those made by others within the system

1http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol13/issue1/boyd.ellison.html

Social Networking Sites Extremely important today Examples:

Facebook and MySpace YouTube Flickr

How many people use them? A lot --MySpace had over 114,000,000

visitors in June 2007

Social Networks – Privacy Issues A lot of personal information in MySpace

and Facebook Fluency (p 482): “There are only two

basic threats [to privacy]: government and business.”

Everything in social network web sites is potentially available to governmental (e.g., law enforcement) and business organizations

Social Bookmarking1

Similar to Favorites folders in your personal computer

This has disadvantages Located only on a local

machine and not available anywhere else

Gets hard to handle if you have a lot of favorites

Difficult to share with others

1. “Social Bookmarking.” <http://www.educause.edu/eli>

Social Bookmarking Social bookmarks are stored on a

separate web site Example: del.icio.us

http://del.icio.us/

Social bookmarks are available anywhere there is an Internet connection

Especially useful if the bookmarks need to be shared

Social Bookmarking Has the added advantage that you

can tag bookmarks with key words

Social Bookmarking You can see the bookmarks of others

who also used your bookmark Possibly an indication of other interesting

pages Allows you to make social connections

with other individuals with similar interests

You can explore how others have used tags you have used

Social Bookmarking Produces a linked network of web

pages created by similar tags and bookmarks

This user-based taxonomy has been called a “folksonomy.”

Example: del.icio.us Use my account as example

Folksonomy A classification scheme made by a crowd of

interested individuals rather than by experts1

Advantages Insights of others in a community of like-minded

individuals Scheme may include links an expert might not

think of Disadvantages

Constructed by amateurs – may be uneven Reflects value of the community – may be

skewed1. “What is a Folksonomy.” <http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-a-folksonomy.htm>

Web 2.01,2

Everything we have talked about so far has been summed up as “Web 2.0”

Business-oriented look at recent social networking developments.

Not accepted by everyone. Real phenomenon or marketing buzzword?

1. Tim O’Reilly. “What is Web 2.0? Design Patterns and Business Models for the Next Generation of Software.” 30-Sept-2005. 27-Apr-2007 http://www.oreillynet.com/lpt/a/6228

2. “Web 2.0.” wikipedia. 27-Apr-2007. 26-Apr-2007. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0”

Web 2.0 Characteristics

Uses Web as a an operating system Dependent on user contributions

Users add value – the more the merrier Users control the data Profits from the collective intelligence of

users Integrates content from different sources Easy to use

Web 2.0: Web as an OS Use the Web as the operating system

Use application entirely through a browser Example: Google

Not a traditional software package Instead, delivered entirely as a web service

Wouldn’t exist without the Web Mainly functions as an enabler, which helps

users find the web content they need

Web 2.0: Users Add Value

Web 2.0 applications grow in effectiveness the more people use them

Examples: eBay and del.icio.us Their power stems from the human

connections they establish Effectiveness depends on

participation

Web 2.0: Users Add Value User-generated data adds value Examples:

Wikipedia Amazon

User reviews Flickr

Entirely dependent on user-submitted photos

Web 2.0: Users Own Data Users exercise control over data on

web site Examples:

Wikipedia Flickr

Web 2.0: Collective Intelligence Web 2.0 harnesses the collective

intelligence of users with no centralized authority

Examples: Wikipedia Google

PageRank Blogging

Collective attention of blogosphere identifies elite blogs to which mainstream media pays attention

Social Bookmarking Folksonomies that are developed

Web 2.0: Integration of Content Mashup: integration of multi-sourced

content into a single application1 Example: Google Maps

Begins with satellite imagery services licensed by Google

Coupled with rich browser-based application to view data

Housingmaps.com combines Google Maps with a web-based database of homes for sale or rent

1. “Gartner’s 2006 Emerging Technologies Hype Cycle.” <http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=495475&format=print>

Web 2.0: User-Friendly Interface

Example: Ajax Collection of techniques to deliver a

rich, user-friendly interface using modern browsers

Can turn difficult-to-use web applications into ones that are much easier to use

Google Maps is a good example