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?

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 ...

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..

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.

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/

Usenet?

[Anonymous Coward]

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

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.

Buzzword?

[TrollBridge]

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

*YAWN*

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.

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...

"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.

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.