Roundtable 2

by: Renee Hudson

•    Tad and Peter’s Presentations

        o    Tad

            •    All computing is social computing; all artifacts rooted in social practice

            •    Notions of collaboration and communication is intertwined in history of computing

            •    Early computing systems dependent on sharing and collaboration

            •    Examples of Twitter and Myspace – aren’t fundamentally changing the nature of computation, but they are changing the form

            •    Allow media of that content to change

            •    Provide opportunities for shared projects

            •    Underutilization of mobile networks

            •    New kinds of information become accessible to social networks and social computing as the media change

            •    How do you take collaboration and turn it into a constituency?

            •    Group of shared interests that need to be advocated for

            •    Patientslikeme.com – upload information about their own conditions, medications they’re taking, side effects, etc. – used as a basis for advocacy

            •    How is participation structured within a social computing project? How can these processes be manipulated?

        o    Peter

            •    How social is social computing?

            •    “Rule #1: The sociology is MORE important than the technology” (Valdis Krebs, orgnet.com)

            •    “Social software is 90% social and 10% software” (Matthew Mahoney, SocialText)

        o    Discussion

            •    Larry’s response to second quote – software determines the nature of the social community

            •    Social software creates a community

            •    Distinction between collaborative social software and other types of social software

            •    Trapped in the Net – Gene I. Rochlin

            •    Social computing as a community building issue