Social Software:
Theory and Practice

http://ctin511.randomfoo.net/

What is Social Software?

And what's that buzzing I hear?

Devil's Dictionary (v2.0)

social software, noun

Any arbitrary collection of algorithms, protocols and metadata that allows friendless agoraphobics to pretend otherwise.

I'm having trouble deciding which node in my social software network I'm going to ask to the e-prom.

Tom Coates (plasticbag.org)

My working definition of social software... (May 08, 2003)

Social software is a particular sub-class of software-prosthesis that concerns itself with the augmentation of human social and / or collaborative abilities through structured mediation...

1. Removing the real-world limitations placed on social and / or collaborative behaviour...
2. Compensating for human inadequacies in processing, maintaining or developing social and / or collaborative mechanisms
3. Creating environments or distributed tool-sets that pull useful end results out of human social and / or collaborative behaviour...

Stewart Butterfield

So, what is social software? By me, it is software that people use to interact with other people, employing some combination of the following five devices:

• Identity
• Presence
• Relationships
• Conversations
• Groups

What is the context?

Case Studies

Social Networking Systems:

• Friendster
• Tribe.net
• Upcoming.org

Making it Better

• Shibboleth
  • Digital ID
  • Privacy Management
• Faceted (Id)entity
• Complex Trust relationships
• E2E architecture
• Decentralized architecture
• Controlling, Facilitating Information Flow
• exploring Whuffie (reputation management)
• Presence across media

Further Information