Talk:Social software

Hello I cant find the differeence betwen Social software and Groupware, are they sinonyms ?

I have a feeling we need to better elaborate on the term. Would group collaboration/project management software such as Basecamp be considered "social software", or does the title only apply to software that is geared towards facilitating socializing? LadyAphelion 02:30, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

From the examples given - Wiki especially - it seems to me acceptable that Social software can help many people to collaborate and/or work towards a common goal. I think Basecamp would be an acceptable example. People work together to manage a project, have discussions, propose ideas, etc. From the article's definition, I can pull two phrases that would indicate that Basecamp is social software: "facilitate interaction and collaboration" and "virtual online communities." LockeShocke 02:34, Jan 7, 2005 (UTC)

I see. Beyond that, would it be correct to say that all software that allows user interaction (especially in the way of text messages of some sort) is social software? In this case, mentioning chat, message boards, and wikis may be much too little for the actual subject matter. LadyAphelion 02:40, 7 Jan 2005 (UTC)

There are several more examples that could be - and should be - added, as well as elaboration on the current content. I'm tempted to make this a new pet project of mine, just getting screenshots of these applications/sites and putting them up, as well as elaborating. To approach the definition from another angle, I'd say social software allows people to come together - either to do something relatively meaningless like chat on IRC or to collaborate on a project. People can do either, the software is still social software because it facilitates interaction for whatever purpose - benign or productive. LockeShocke 00:48, Jan 8, 2005 (UTC)

I think an imporant aspect of social software (or some subset) is the ability to bring about new social connections between people previously unassociated. Project management tools don't seem to fit this mode. Whether this is an essential aspect is debatable. A-giau 07:11, 9 Jan 2005 (UTC)

I don't entirely agree that the formation of associations between previously unassociated individuals is the defining attribute of social software. Certainly that is an important subset--people searches were not only one of the most popular but also one of the earliest things to evolve out of AOL and such--but not the defining characteristic of social software. I like the earlier definition, that social software is any software that facilitates communication between people. Whether or not that's friendly relations and whether or not that's making new contacts is for the most part irrelevant. Taking it to the nth level is the difficult part, because it implies universality. Certainly some things, like open chat rooms, are more relaxed and more likely to cause new relationships than other things, like project management software and commenting systems on corporate intranets, but the formality of the situation does not affect whether or not it is social. Does it? Hm. Maybe if it helped a cocktail party.

The question remains. Can you only call something social software if it effects informal social interaction? Or is any interpersonal communication software somewhat social? As in, when it is understood that both the reader and composer using this software to communicate will be human, is that definitively, end of story, social software?

One of the articles linked off this one states, "Social Software tools depend more on social convention than on software features to facilitate interaction and collaboration." On the other hand, there's the slightly wider "Social software, software that supports group communications, includes everything from the simple CC: line in email to vast 3D game worlds like EverQuest, and it can be as undirected as a chat room, or as task-oriented as a wiki (a collaborative workspace)." When do you draw the line between "depend more on social convention" and the opposite? What if you're more task-oriented than a wiki? Group communications, you say. Then yes, it's more universal than we seem to be implying.LadyAphelion

I would like to see a mention of the importance of an underlying P2P technology in much of this, along with a corresponding greater emphasis on the ability to share files in a collaborative or just fun way (e.g. sharing photos without emailing them).DuncanCragg

Answering myself: I've just modified the 'realtime' subsection, which was an advert for imeem with questionable and thin content. I now refer to a number of commercial products with this P2P technology, including imeem. I've removed some of the spam and tidied up a bit, also DuncanCragg

It could be argued that, if IM is in, so should VoIP be: the only difference between Yahoo IM and Skype is that you can hear rather than see the conversation. Also, if Forums are in, so is USENET News - the original Social Software! Apart, that is, from mailing lists! These are all equivalent in functionality and all deserve a place here. Just because they're old doesn't mean they don't count as Social Software... DuncanCragg

CLARITY, PLEASE!

"In this understanding of the term, the social is understood to also have a political and aesthetic sense, not simply acting as a kind of glue for a collection of normatively understood 'agents' whose inter-relations are formatted by software."

Say what? A bit jargony for the casual reader. Wikipedia is intended for a general audience, not an academic one. Rewrite, please! --Bo-Bo Belsinger 00:02, 7 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

Notes on Lead Paragraph Cleanup

This is an important concept, and we need to work together to get it right. Rather than fight over the definition, I've written a lead paragraph that builds the definition uncertainty into the discussion from the get-go (I believe this accurately reflects the multiple ways in which the term is used).

I moved the following paragraph here:

The term also arose in the late nineties to describe software emerging out of alliances between programmers and social groups whose particular kinds of cultural intelligence are locked out of mainstream software. In this understanding of the term, the social is understood to also have a political and aesthetic sense, not simply acting as a kind of glue for a collection of normatively understood 'agents' whose inter-relations are formatted by software. What both positions share is an understanding that particular design decisions and the grammar of interactions made possible by each piece of software is socially significant.

This sounds fascinating, but (as Bo-Bo Belsinger observed, supra), it's "a bit jargony." I'm not sure I understand what the author is getting at. Still, I think there's an important point here. How about this for a translation?

In the late 1990s, as more software developers grasped the significance of social software, efforts to build prosocial features into software gained momentum.

Examples? Bryan 16:14, 19 November 2005 (UTC)[reply]

merge

the anonymous ip address did not provide any argument for the merge. i removed it. --Buridan 16:09, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry, I am the anonymous IP, and I have commented in the other article. Blowski 21:24, 27 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

feel free to return them if you haven't then. if you make the argument as an anonymous, that would've been cool, but without any post... a random merge tage looks very much like spam. --Buridan 23:54, 28 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Social Search

Hi. I started editing an article someone started called social searching but then I thought that it might be good to merge it with this article. Any opinions or advice? (Toritaiyo 17:16, 3 October 2006 (UTC))[reply]

Tools versus services

Since most social software now combines traits of multiple tools, dividing the modes or tools of interaction from the types of services built on them, had to happen sometime. So it just did. Also regarding the claim in this paragraph:

Implicit social network search engines allow people to filter search results based upon classes of social networks they trust, such as a shared political viewpoint. This was called an epistemic filter in a United Nations University report from 1993 which predicted that this would become the dominant means of search for most users.

This prediction was in the State of the Future Report, 1993 from the American Council for the UNU and was released by the UNU in 1994. Could be that epistemic filter should redirect to epistemic community since the former seems to create the latter.

Software or Service

I`m kinda confused. Was searching the web for a software to provide a social bookmark service to my users and found that section here. now, there is a lot of servicec linked under "software" but non of the links actualy sends me to a downloadsection for sb softare.

History section

I have suggested that the article History of social software be merged into this article. The "History of social software" article is actually more of an essay, but there may be enough sources and additional information there to constitute the basis of a short "History" section in this article. -- Black Falcon 23:26, 8 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I started the History of social software article but have not got back to editing it more yet. I'm dedicated to working on it the next couple months. I had imagined it could get fairly long depending on a fairly broad interpretation of what constitutes social software. This is my first article so I will follow the lead of more experienced folks. If the goal is to keep things relatively short and/or do more linking to related topics, then let me know. If the introductory part is too much like an essay vs. encyclopedia entry, then let me know too. I kind of plunked it there and realize it needs to be edited.

- Rick 11:09, 19 March 2007