Tracing the Evolution of Social Software

ChristopherRayAllen writes "I have just posted an article on the history of terminology associated with collaboration software in my Life With Alacrity blog: The term 'social software', which is now used to define software that supports group interaction, has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years. However, the core ideas of social software itself enjoy a much longer history, running back to Vannevar Bush's ideas about 'memex' in 1945, and traveling through terms such as Augmentation, Groupware, and CSCW in the 1960s, 70s, 80s, and 90s. By examining the many terms used to describe today's 'social software' we can also explore the origins of social software itself, and see how a very real life cycle centers around the use of technical terminology."

Comments

Is it really social software...

[Bobdoer]

...if it won't bake cookies, make some lemonade and chat on the front porch?

Re:Is it really social software...

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone mentioned USENET as one of the first "social software" tools. There is something even older on Internet - it is called "mailing lists". Good old mailing lists. Can anyone argue that YahooGroups isn't a great tool to "network" with people, when used wisely?

Then you've got things like eBay. Social software? Not at all, but see how it has evolved so that you can see how someone else is doing when it comes to selling or buying stuff. Trust is the keyword here - not that you could just trust anyone on eBay simply because they have a 'good' rating, but that could be improved.

Now throw all if this in a bottle and shake it all up and you might have something to talk about, not the joke that sites like Frienster and Orkut have become. Userplane's blog had an entry about one tiny place actually doing email groups, auctions and social networking toys - www.egrupos.com , but I wouldn't be surprised to see more of this in the near future.

Blogs and stuff like that are fashionable nowadays, but sometimes, just sometimes, it might be better to stick to what has worked for years and improve it (which BTW is what Google does - doesn't quite invent anything new on its on, just improves things already well known like search and email)...

Thats all good but..

[essreenim]

social software', which is now used to define software that supports group interaction, has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years. ..what about software to collaberate our lives as well - not just our software endeavoures? Think of the changes that could happen if the philosophy of free software spread into all other industries, services etc ...

Re:Thats all good but..

[Ignignot]

what about software to collaberate our lives as well - not just our software endeavoures?

I think that's a great idea, but someone has already done it. Its called government. ;-)

Re:Thats all good but..

[essreenim]

Yeah thanks, just gimme a URL and I'll go download
governemt.run and install it on my hard drive.
Thankyou for that..

Re:Thats all good but..

[Random Web Developer]

"Think of the changes that could happen if the philosophy of free software spread into all other industries, services etc ..."

We would end up with communism minus a government* or chaos :D
*And even then we would have some inofficial government of people with more influence than others.

I'm not trolling, I'm a heavy free soft user and a small dev but if freedom and endless mailinglist discussions would be everywhere that would be a serious issue for mankind

Re:Thats all good but..

[essreenim]

Ahh, the typical American response..

'It has an unusual colour, it must be communism - destroy it'
'This is all very experimental and ground-breaking - communism - destroy it..'

Two or more years?

[Anonymous Coward]

has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years

I guess the invention of the wheel also happened within the "last two or more years" :)

Introduction to HCI

[metlin]

Hmm, this is almost entirely what my graduate Introduction to HCI class covered.

Quite cool, though. Maybe my HCI prof would find it interesting :)

If you want good social software

[mpost4]

Look at Casos at cmu they pull in all parts of social stuff to explore Social Networks, they have socilaity, CS, physics, etc... I am personaly like Vista, but I am very bias to that program..

Re:If you want good social software

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry but that post is completely incoherent. Try again.

What about us?

[LostCluster]

The article seems to have skipped over the entire blog culture as being a social use of software... one that we are playing a part in right now.

Slashdot might be called a "news site", but in technical format it's run as a blog where a select few chosen by the owner of the sute post stories, then we all chime in with our comments. That's exactly how a "blog" is defined...

And you can't say this doesn't change how news is processed in our world. Just look at all the trouble Dan Rather is having with blogs teaming up pointing out his recent mistakes...

Re:What about us?

[coconutstudio]

Another huge area is online gaming. People can interact with each other virtually in Everquest universe that seems to parallel the reality.

Re:What about us?

[eille-la]

http://www.shirky.com
Look at this site if you want to read some interesting essays.
"Clay Shirky's Writings About the Internet
Economics & Culture, Media & Community, Open Source"
You'll find essays about blogs.
The link come from the article itself.

Re:What about us?

[Anonymous Coward]

Definitely, and EQ is a rather recent addition too. MUDs started on 80s, as well as some other oldie games (Netrek?). So online games have definitely been amongst biggest such 'social' systems.

This article is pretty good

[hsmith]

I found this on the java forums, it provides interesting insight into online communities. basically breaks down some interesting psychological points on them

http://shirky.com/writings/group_enemy.html/

Re:This article is pretty good

[blogeasy]

The article you provided was very insightful. There are some good points for designing software to support groups. It's often difficult to think as a group would think, but once you acknowledge the new perspective you start to see how things could be improved.

Usenet?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe I'm just old, but how can you completely ignore Usenet?

Re:Usenet?

[tricorn]

Or PLATO, at the University of Illinois and Control Data Corporation?

Do not forget about the classic BBS.

[Agent Green]

Now, THAT was social software, used in many cases for social purposes. While they were not the collaboration tools and such that we use today, they did allow for interaction and sharing in a way that no other service could.

Similar to the OSS movement, most of the BBS community was run by volunteers who spent their own time and money to make their systems possible.

Those are days that I will look back on with mostly smiles and happy thoughts.

Re:Do not forget about the classic BBS.

[wintermute740]

I was thinking the exact same thing. The BBS community is still quite alive and well via telnet, but it isn't quite the same. When the BBS scene was more localized, there was always the chance that some you'd meet some random person on the street and already know them from the BBS scene. Not much chance of that happening these days with the telnet BBS scene.

Re:Do not forget about the classic BBS.

[kin_korn_karn]

I beg to differ. My local BBS scene was populated with the same psycho-geek assholes that the internet features. I guess that's fine if you're one of them.

Re:Do not forget about the classic BBS.

[Luyseyal]

Unless your BBS has remained local in flavor and has been around for a zillion years in various incarnations. :)

-l

Re:Do not forget about the classic BBS.

[cratermoon]

Oh great, now chat will get slashdotted.....

Jokes: The Evolution of Social Software

[Mstrgeek]

Hope you find the jokes to be funny

http://defaria.com/Jokes/TheEvolutionOfSocialSoftw are.php

Last two or more years?

[Blue Mushroom]

Doesn't that pretty much include the entirety of human history?

Social Software swt/weblog

[kword]

Here's my favorite "Social Software"...

I use MeetingPoint and MobiLuck on my Nokia 6600.

Mobiluck is better and easier than manual bluejacking. Plus I like that app a lot. I use it when I want to choose who to pest.

Meetingpoint is in a slightly different business... it does not need ANY manual interaction, just set the message you want to send, put your cell in a pocket and walk around, automatically spamming every cell that gets close enough. Oh, and it also runs on palm, pocketpc, windows. But not linux. I keep pestering the authors to get it for my PowerBook... it has a class-1 bluetooth thing - would love to bluejack everybody whitin 300ft...

Way, way more here SocialSoftware Weblog.

When?

[Anonymous Coward]

...has only become relatively popular within the last two or more years.

What the hell does that mean?

Buzzword?

[TrollBridge]

I guess companies couldn't sell enough "Collaboration Software", so they just same up with a new, trendy-sounding buzzword.

*YAWN*

Re:Buzzword?

[Random Web Developer]

Just what i was thinking.
I'll probably be modded flamebait, but what the freaking hell is this.
Some guy invents a new term, writes a blog entry about it, posts it to slashdot, and of course it's accepted because it's news no one should be missing.

Personally I like anti-social software.

[yecrom2]

Like the old saying goes:
"Unix is very user friendly. It just picks it's friends very carefully."

m.

Online "social networks"...

[Ninwa]

None of the online "friend networks" like friendster or orkut (Why does that sound like a vacuum brand) had much of an impact on my life but I imagine they should be considered as well.

Re:Slashdot personalized story title filter featur

[UserGoogol]

Real Life, eh?

Too bad...

[gregarican]

that this newly hyped buzzword isn't attracting a lot of collaboration based on the message threads here. Perhaps it's not robust and scalable enough to exist as a clicks-and-mortar bleeding edge institution.

Sheesh. I think I'll start blogging about TPS reports to see what recoginition I'll get...

telnet chat.fnord.org ...

[Luyseyal]

Local Austin BBS^H^H^Hsocial software: telnet://chat.fnord.org

-l

The article doesn't mention PLATO

[MaxRahder]

The article doesn't mention one of the first collaborative environments. The PLATO system thrived at the University of Illinois (and elsewhere) during the 1970s:

• http://cyber1.org/
• http://www.platopeople.com/
• http://www.thinkofit.com/plato/dwplato.htm

Wait a second...

[Anonymous Coward]

They say I shouldn't drink beer by myself...is it okay if I drink beer with Sally (my computer)?

"within the last two years" yeah right!

[tomjennings]

Oh please, more likely the two years is the limit of the authors pedantic 'knowledge'.

ARPANET/Internet. USENET. FidoNet. Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) software, the sole purpose of which to build electronic meetingplaces, since the late 1970's. And countless machine-local 'mail' type systems on computers back to the earliest if the 1960's.

Re:"within the last two years" yeah right!

[tallbill]

I believe that the author is discussing the linquistics and terminology of a certain group of acedemics. The point I was seeing was that the use of a term, 'social software' has only recently been added to the lexicon of certain social scientists. Social scientists typically study other people and sell their data to marketting and industrial think tank types. I think this author realizes that all software is somehow social. But when was the term 'social software' first used? I suppose the logical thing to do if one really cares is to search for that term and see what the oldest hit is. . .

Source Control Software

[tallbill]

The fundamentals of what others are now calling 'social software' were fully available in source control software from over ten or fifteen years ago. Was the software development team the species from which the modern blog evolved? Seems like it to me.

really liked that

[SuperKendall]

The trailing / needs to be removed from the link for it to work.

It was a great article though, I have observed similar effects for some time. Any interesting group always develops core members and the group is better off if those core members are able to somewhat control how the group as a whole operates.

And it's very true that if you go in and disturb a happily functioning group, the core members will go to great lengths to remove the disturbance and punish the offender in some way.

Another article along those lines is this JoelOnSoftware article about socal interfaces.

I'm pretty unimpressed

[14erCleaner]

This article seemed kind of academic in its focus, as if the only social-interaction software that counted was that created by professors in non-technical areas. Among other things, he left out:

Plato (notes and email)

Usenet

Chat rooms

Instant messaging

i.e. he leaves out the things that get the most use by real people, and instead focuses on the MIT Media Lab kind of stuff that nobody in the real world really cares about.

[nt] shah right.

[Luyseyal]

How about CRM, CM, SFA, etc?

[GonerDoug]

How about CRM type software like GoldMine, ACT! or even Exchange? Granted it's business related but it does serve to community-ize the calendars and address books of co-workers and open a special kind of group-collaboration avenue...

vannevar bush

[Anonymous Coward]

...rather than studying the evolution of software trees, i'd be much more interested in a study of the devolution of the bush family tree.

seriously, vannevar was a very dynamic, brilliant person. i wonder what social differences led to "the fall"?