LIS454: Social Software

1
LIS-454 Social Software

• How to discuss information collaboration tools
  without mentioning the word Library.

2
Defining Social Software

• Social software refers to various, loosely
  connected types of applications that allow
  individuals to communicate with one another, and
  to track discussions across the Web as they
  happen. (Tepper, M. , The Rise of Social
  Software, 2003)

3
The sources and examples

• Many forms of social software are already old
  news for experienced technology users bulletin
  boards, instant messaging, online role-playing
  games, and even the collaborative editing tools
  built into most word processing software all
  qualify

4
The sources and examples

• Content Syndication and aggregation tools
• Collaborative virtual workspaces
• Collaborative editing

5
"The more interesting your life becomes, the less
you post... and vice versa."

• Clay Shirky's Internet Writings
• Jorn Barger ( who coined the term weblog)
• Maura Johnston (1996).
• Slashdot News for nerds, stuff that matters
• LazyWeb

6
The Permalink

• For the first time it became relatively easy to
  gesture directly at a highly specific post on
  someone else's site and talk about it. (Tepper)
• Permalinks led to syndication
• Syndication led to blog tracking tools
• Refback, Trackback, Pingback.

7
In the USA

• By the end of 2004 blogs had established
  themselves as a key part of online culture. Two
  surveys by the Pew Internet American Life
  Project in November established new contours for
  the blogosphere 8 million American adults say
  they have created blogs blog readership jumped
  58 in 2004 and now stands at 27 of internet
  users 5 of internet users say they use RSS
  aggregators or XML readers to get the news and
  other information delivered from blogs and
  content-rich Web sites as it is posted online
  and 12 of internet users have posted comments or
  other material on blogs. Still, 62 of internet
  users do not know what a blog is. ( Pew
  Internet Report, 2005, The State of Blogging.

8
The Business Factor

• Successful companies use a combination of the
  Internet and traditional practices whereby the
  internet applications enhance the traditional
  business they are certainly not a substitute.
• Online Internet services have successfully
  created a model around the internets abilities
  (Smith, 2005).
• Enterprise applications (Scott, 2006).

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Competitive intelligence, Brand image, reputation
management

• Speed of information diffusion, low barrier to
  access, scanning capabilities (Pikas, 2005).
• Blog cycle is very short.
• Companies market with information services
  companies to integrate their feature products
  into business and news search.

10
The future of Social Software

• Social software is less of a revolution and more
  of an evolution (Arnold, Searcher Magazine,
  2003).

11
What Social Software brings to the information
world.

• A new dimension of computer mediated
  communication (CMC).
• New legitimacy requirements.
• Vast amount of applications.
• Certain overestimation of technology
  capabilities.
• Is it only a communication tool?

12
Remember Open Source Software

• Collaboration and communication
• Learning environments
• Tools for communication

13
In the end Thinking of Social Software as a
common ground for multiple disciplines
Challenges
Designed, tested, and produced by
Utilized by
Social software
Communication, History, Health studies, Social
Psychology, Computer Science, Anthropology.
Sociology, Information Science, Environmental
Science, etc.
Community
User
Creative Knowledge
Creative Use