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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 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: 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>