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Social Software / Web 2.0

Objective:

Whole new classes of software (Blogs, Wikis, RSS, Del.ici.ous, Podcasts, and more) are emerging that are transforming the way people use and live with computers. These have transformed the way people experience the Internet to such a great extent that people refer to it as Web 2.0, a second version of the web. Primarily the transition is from one of static pages to dynamic content, content that comes not from the "top down" but rather from the "bottom up". This simply means that users create and add to the web making it a social sphere rather than an individualistic experience. Our objective today is to come to some understanding of this new software and look a few examples of it.

 

Web 2.0 / Social Software

One of the fears frequently expressed during the early stages of personal computing was that computing would isolate individuals into their own virtual world.  People began to address that concern using software to reduce isolation and build new communities in the world of the web.  The web greatly facilitated that development with a host of new software types that dramatically transform the landscape for an individual in an online world. This is the new social software that makes up much of Web 2.0. Social software is defined as software that "enables people to rendezvous, connect or collaborate through computer-mediated communication and to form online communities....Common to most definitions is the observation that some types of software seem to facilitate 'bottom-up' community development, in which membership is voluntary, reputations are earned by winning the trust of other members, and the community's mission and governance are defined by the community's members themselves."  However it is not just about creating community. It is also about tapping into people's knowledge and understanding. There is a belief -- at times naive but more often quite realistic -- that by combining everyone's knowledge and understanding one ends up with something better and richer and more fully realized. Social software is frequently used to bring together what is normally isolated knowledge or expertise.

  • Why do a few amateur traders in Iowa City outperform the Gallup polls in predicting election results?
  • Why is it that you stop at a convenience store at two in the morning you can find milk?
  • Why is it that the stock market outperforms any one individual investor over a period of a decade or more? Why, every so often, does the stock market stop working?
  • Why does science get better?
  • Why can Google scan and search billions of pages and give you the exact piece of information you are looking for?
Each of these happens because the collective knowledge that is brought to the decision is greater than the sum of its parts.

Web 2.0 refers to version two of the world wide web where there is a fundamental shift away from static pages that must be changed by web page developers to a web where users create the content. The four key aspects of Web 2.0 are collaboration, gathering, publishing, and multimedia. With collaboration users do the reviewing of books, magazines, TV programs, web sites, cars, or they comment on the politics, the art, the fashion, the movies they have experienced. Craigslist, Inc. (online classified ads), eBay, Inc. (online buying and selling -- basically an auction), and Myspace.com (a place to "hang out" digitally) represent three very different examples of this kind of collaboration yet all three are dependent upon direct user involvement and interaction among the users. Gathering of information occurs in places like Slashdot and Digg where users comment upon, for example, news stories but also provide links to the full stories. So instead of reading a newspaper, you visit Digg to see what others with your similar interests have gathered together for community use. Publishing becomes part of the new web as well since users can now publish their comments, reviews, and suggestions in easy-to-use interfaces that allow one to change the content of a web page with a few clicks. Finally it is not just text that is being used, it is pictures, movies, and music that users and communities are putting on there for all to use. Multimedia has made the static text pages of the old web seem antiquated. Of course, with these transformations, have come many new concerns such privacy, safety, and copyright issues.

 

Mobs and Crowds

Quotations

 

Anyone taken as an individual is tolerably sensible and reasonable—as a member of a crowd, he at once becomes a blockhead.

~Bernard Baruch

 

Madness is the exception in individuals but the rule in groups.

~Friedrich Nietzsche

 

The mass never comes up to the standard of its best member, but on the contrary degrades itself to a level with the lowest.

~Henry David Thoreau

 

I do not believe in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance.

~Thomas Carlyle

 

[U]nder the right circumstances, groups are remarkably intelligent, and are often smarter than the smartest people in them .... Even if most of the people within a group are not especially well-informed or rational, it can still reach a collectively wise decision.

~James Surowiecki, The Wisdom of Crowds

 

 

 

Certainly there are factors that contribute to making this happen such as free exchange of knowledge, effective communication, and the motivation to improve. Social computing provides a way of gathering and organizing the information while enabling the communication.  Social computing then not only is about enabling the social interactions that are important in human life but it is also a way of organizing large groups of volunteers to accomplish tasks that normally could not be done.

 

Delicious

Delicious is a way of storing your favorite links and gives you much more freedom to organize and arrange them in ways that are useful to yourself.  Your favorite links are no longer stored on your local computer but are available from any computer on the internet.  Since you get to add tags and descriptions, you are able to provide a more detailed listing of those links that are important to you.

Delicious is an example of folksonomy. This is defined and explained as "a group of people cooperating spontaneously to organize information into categories. In contrast to formal classification methods, this phenomenon typically only arises in non-hierarchical communities, such as public websites. Instead of using a centralized form of classification, users are encouraged to assign freely chosen keywords, typically referred to as "tags", to pieces of information or data, a process known as "tagging". Examples of web services that use tagging include those designed to allow users to publish and share photographs, personal libraries, bookmarks, social software and most blog software, permitting authors to assign tags to each entry."

 

It does not stop there, however.  These links are also then shared with others automatically so that your list becomes a means for others to see related links that they may find useful just as you can browse their links to find other items related.  Not only are links shared but the tags and descriptions. Keep links, then, becomes a social activity with like-minded individuals.  You explore other people's links as they explore yours.  They've found them and tagged them so you can benefit from their work as they benefit from your tags and links.

 

Visit my delicious web site at http://del.icio.us/gary.eicc/.   Create your own -- it is a great way to keep you web links handy. 

 

Blogging

A blog is a website in which items are posted on a regular basis and displayed in reverse chronological order. Like other media, blogs often focus on a particular subject, such as food, politics, or local news. Some blogs function as online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. Since its appearance in 1995, blogging has emerged as a popular means of communication, affecting public opinion and mass media around the world. [From Wikipedia]
 

A blog has certain attributes that distinguish it from a standard web page. It allows for easy creation of new pages: new data are entered into a simple form (usually with the title, the category, and the body of the article) and then submitted. Automated templates take care of adding the article to the home page, creating the new full article page (Permalink), and adding the article to the appropriate date- or category-based archive. It allows for easy filtering of content for various presentations: by date, category, author, or other attributes. It allows the administrator to invite and add other authors, whose permission and access are easily managed.[From Wikipedia]

 

Some great locations to find what blogs are available:

Digging for Information

With Digg or Slashdot, everything is present based upon user input and user voting. Essentially what raises to the top is what people consider the most useful to them. Primarily this is focused on political and technology news but there are now so many different interests represented among the listed items, that you will normal a list already created matching your own interests.

http://www.digg.com -- This is the largest of the these types of sites and probably the most widely used. Each item is rated by the number of "diggs" as in "ya' digg it!" -- it is cool and useful to the person. You just click on the ubiquitious "digg" icon to show that you, too, liked the article, news item, or comments. Digg provides the ability to blog, to comment, and to add video as well.

www.slashdot.com -- This site is "news for nerds", that is for technology nerds and geeks but it functions much like Digg.



RSS

RSS stands for "Really Simple Syndication". Web feeds provide web content or summaries of web content together with links to the full versions of the content, and other metadata. RSS in particular, delivers this information as an XML file called an RSS feed, webfeed, RSS stream, or RSS channel. In addition to facilitating syndication, web feeds allow a website's frequent readers to track updates on the site using an aggregator.  Look for these symbols: ,

, .

 

Basically RSS works like a magazine subscription.  You subscribe to an RSS feed and then it is sent to you automatically so that you stay current with that web site.  Blogs, wikis, delicious, and other software types use these as a means to keep people current.

 

For a list of places to obtain RSS feeds, go here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_news_aggregators

Here's an example of place to go to read your RSS feeds:  
 http://www.google.com/reader/view/.

http://www.newsgator.com/

 

Here are some examples of RSS feeds to give you a sense of what they are like:

Podcasts

Podcasting is the distribution of audio or video files, such as radio programs or music videos, over the internet using either RSS or Atom syndication for listening on mobile devices and personal computers. A podcast is a web feed of audio or video files placed on the Internet for anyone to download or subscribe to, and also the content of that feed. Podcasters' websites also may offer direct download of their files, but the subscription feed of automatically delivered new content is what distinguishes a podcast from a simple download or real-time streaming. Usually, the podcast features one type of "show" with new episodes either sporadically or at planned intervals such as daily, weekly, etc. Besides that there are podcast networks that feature multiple shows on the same feed. Podcasting's essence is about creating content (audio or video) for an audience that wants to listen when they want, where they want, and how they want.[Wikipedia]

 

Where to go to find podcasts?  Check out these sites:

Wikis

The term Wiki also sometimes refers to the collaborative software itself (wiki engine) that facilitates the operation of such a website (see wiki software).
 

In essence, wiki is a simplification of the process of creating HTML web pages combined with a system that records each individual change that occurs over time, so that at any time, a page can be reverted to any of its previous states. A wiki system may also provide various tools that easily allow the user community to monitor the constantly changing state of the wiki and discuss the issues that emerge in trying to achieve a general consensus about wiki content. Wiki content can also be misleading as users may add incorrect information to the Wiki page.
 

Some wikis will allow completely unrestricted access so that people are able to contribute to the site without necessarily having to undergo a process of 'registration', as had usually been required by various other types of interactive websites such as Internet forums or chat sites.[Wikipedia]

 

  • http://www.wikipedia.org/. Wikipedia is the most widely known wiki out there and is a valuable online resource for technology but just as a regular encyclopedia as well.
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki_software (wiki software)
  • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_wikis (lists of wikis)
  • Miki -- wikis for mobile devices This is an article about the latest development in wikis, that is, wikis for mobile devices like a Blackberry.  This article also talks about how wikis are a valuable tool for collaboration and better meetings within an organization, in this case a German bank.  The group behind Miki is Socialtext, a startup "that specializes in providing software and support for enterprises looking to set up their own internal wikis and weblogs."

Online Communities

All the above software packages are used in various ways to create entire communities where people share interests, ideas, music, files, and more.  They add their photos, their blogs, they chat with each other, they create web sites,  and more.  Numerous web sites allow these communities to form and go their own way. These sites tend to be youth-oriented and focused on their concerns but others are catering to a much wider audience.  Since this are by definition, social, some parts of some of these sites focus on dating and mature themes.

 

Here are some examples of such online communities:

  • http://www1.myspace.com/index.cfm (Scroll down to the bottom and click on "Start Here" to learn more or to set up your MySpace.  Note that your create your own profile and then share with others.  You can create your own groups, chats, blogs, and much more.)
  • http://www.bibliophil.org/default.php (Here's a community where you keep track of your books in your library and use those as a means of finding others with similar interests to your own.  Wikipedia explains "Users can share their collections and recommendations are generated based on the ratings using statistical computation and network theory." In short, you build a network of other users who share your interests in books, music, movies, etc.)
  • http://www.friendster.com/ (This is one of the early online communities that provide numerous ways to connect with others and publish information about yourself.  The profile you create is used for analysis to find others for you to "network" with. )
  • http://www.hi5.com/default.html (This site is similar to friendster.com though each has their unique features.)
  • http://www.ikarma.com/ (This site is different in that it focuses business networking and on your own reputation and how you are evaluated by others. They describe themselves as "a trusted third-party service for collecting, managing and promoting your reputation among your customers and contacts. By providing a central source for contacts to leave feedback about you and your services, iKarma helps you preserve a lasting record of your good reputation - giving future customers confidence and peace of mind when doing business with you.")
  • http://www.facebook.com/ (This site focuses on building groups, social groups, based upon schools, regions, and businesses. This site works on the basis of a "friend of a friend" but with certain limits or "walls" that you establish.  Your profile is limited to your group of friends and so this is not as "wide open" as some of the other social networking communities previously listed.  )

 

Online Movie and Photo Tools

Increasingly expensive tools for editing movies and photos are becoming available for free via your web browser. Some of these tools (JumpCut for example) are a part of a social community because you are allowed to edit and change other people's files and share those with the community. Most of these tools also have a system of "groups" where people with similar interests can work or share files together.

  • http://www.flickr.com/ This web site provides an excellent example of the many sites that allow people to store, share, search, and sort their digital photos. Many opportunities are there for joining or forcreating of groups focused on photographs of a particular type (pets, scenic, etc.).
  • http://www.jumpcut.com/ Jumpcut is 'beta' software that allows you to upload a video file and edit it. You can also edit other people's video and join groups. The initial upload of the video takes some times but the response after that is fairly quick. Editing video is not as easy as it might seem and it takes time to learn. While this interface is easy to use, to create a good video clip will take some practice and effort on your part.
  • http://pixoh.com/ Pixoh, another 'beta', provides basic online photo editing that can handle large image files. One key advantage is that it does not alter your original file. So make as many changes as you want -- you can always go back to the original. Once you upload the picture, it is stored for 24 hours and then deleted. You can access your photo via a unique web address that is given to you. This site has no social features at this point.
  • http://www.pxn8.com/ PXN8 is another online photo editing package that has some additional features that you may find useful. This site has no social features at this point.
  • http://www.youtube.com/ This is a huge site with vast numbers of videos from anyone who wishes to share their video.  It contains everything from the serious to the vacuous.  People are allowed to freely upload their own videos.  Yes, some of the content is adult, and some of it may violate copyright.

Mashing and Social Mapping Software

Mashing involves reusing information. Mashing is taking two sets or more of information and combining them in new ways. It also frequently involves using two or more different software programs to achieve the combining of these sets of information. One of the more frequently used information sets is geographic information. A user may post on a map where they got excellent scenic pictures along the highway and that information is shared with others who view her mashup.
  • http://www.flagr.com/  Suppose you are have a series of places you like to visit.  Here you have a map that you can easily "bookmark" and keep track of those places.   You flag the location and you can add  pictures, descriptive commentary, and tags.  If all those flags are public, then people will get a sense of who you are and you will begin to connect with other people with similar interests.  Flagr provides a means to do this.  You can share these flags with your friends but the flags are also available for anyone to share.  Flags can be added using your computer but also by using mobile phones.
  • http://socialight.com/ This does much the same as Flagr though you can add sound as well as notes to your bookmarked locations.  Again, this can be done from your phone.  "Socialight lets you put virtual 'sticky' notes called StickyShadows™ anywhere in the real world. Share pictures, notes and more using your cell phone."
  • http://www.platial.com/  This site call's itself the "People's Atlas" and is similar to Socialight and Flagr.
  • http://www.webmashup.com/ provides a source for a whole variety of mashups that sometimes start as one person keeping track of information for themselves but then with others adding to it, it takes on a life of its own. One person started a list of places where biodiesel was sold and as others added to it, suddenly you have a useful list for all biodiesel users in that area.
Gary's address:
Kahl Education Center - EICC

326 West 3rd Street

Davenport, Iowa 52801-1219

Phone:  563-336-5263
Help Desk: 563-336-3456
Email:  golson@eicc.edu

Send mail to Gary Olson with questions about this web site.

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