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| Is Collaboration the Next Big Web Thing? |
July 13, 2004 |
By Risha Gottlieb
Those in the know in the online world are increasingly buzzing about an emerging category of interaction tools called social software. But what they’re saying varies widely: social software is either set to revolutionize the online experience or do absolutely nothing of significance. The term social software has been around for more than a decade, yet Internet think-tanks and research firms such as Forrester and IDC barely acknowledge its existence. Analytically speaking, social software is a collage of tools and methods that facilitate human communication within the virtual world.
In that sense it includes everything from e-mail and PowerPoint to instant messaging, chat rooms, Usenet newsgroups
and Web logs, although the term typically refers to less mundane applications.
The parallels for social software within the real world include the village square, the camp fire, the local library, the social club or the board of trade — any public arena where people congregate. It’s a place where the like-minded can collaborate to create great scientific advancements and plot revolutions against despotic rulers, or figure out a better way to make chocolate chip cookies. Social software tries to do all that in a virtual setting and this, in turn, is why pinning down a definition is tough. It’s not a particular thing but rather a state of mind or a way of thinking; it’s one possible direction in the evolution of the virtual world.
Jon Husband, a Vancouver-based social software and blogging guru, has coined his own word: wirearchy. This describes a new dynamic emerging in our wired world where communities and networks of bloggers cluster around common interests, causes, situations and vocations. Husband describes himself as a techno-anthropologist, blogger, writer and international consultant, and he has become a global proponent of social software. “Instead of having a few people up at the top make the decisions for all of us,” he said, “the concept of wirearchy is a two-way flow of power and authority based on knowledge, credibility, trust and results enabled by interconnected people and technology. And it’s doubtful that there will be a wholesale attempt to control the unruliness of the ’net — that way lies fascism and totalitarian control.”
Indeed, he thinks the ’net’s ubiquitous interconnections have created a completely new set of conditions for humans, with information spreading faster and farther than ever before. For example, he points to the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal.
“Donald Rumsfeld blamed digital cameras and access to the Internet for the news about prisoner abuse escaping the Administration’s control.” In a similar vein, Stowe Boyd — who writes a monthly column for http://www.darwinmag.com and is the managing director of Reston, Va.-based Corante Research, a firm which analyses emerging technologies and their impact on business and society, believes social software is destined to make it onto “the next big thing list.
“Social software,” Boyd wrote, “reflects the ‘juice’ that arises from people’s personal interactions. It’s not about control, it’s about co-evolution: people in personal contact, interacting towards their own ends, influencing each other.
But there isn’t a single clearly defined project, per se. It’s a sprawling, tentacled world, where social dealings are inductive, going from the individual to a group to many groups and finally to the universe.”
Both Husband and Boyd sound less like technology analysts and more like political revolutionaries advocating a new world order or global metropolis within a virtual realm.
LOFTY IDEAS, BUT…
So is there a future for social software? In a 2003 report, Cambridge-based Forrester Research concluded that “blogging is not even close to mainstream” and that “79% said they had never even heard of blogs before our survey.” However, there are markers pointing to progress. For example, there are more online business and personal network systems — like Ryze, Friendster, Meetup, LinkedIn and Ecademy — out there today helping people connect and get into conversations and relationships. And then there is Wikis, a collaboration application that allows huge groups to work collectively on massive projects.
Also, according to Husband, a few companies like Shell and the BBC have already rolled out more far-reaching forms of social software. For example, the BBC has launched a Web site (http://www.bbc.co.uk/whereilive) where users can create a profile mapped to their postal code or town and, in turn, get specific news relevant to their community. The site also allows users to interact with others close to their location. What’s old is new again: we’ve come full circle to gather at the village square. And perhaps this is the underlying definition of social software — it’s the attempt to humanize the virtual world so people can keep up with it.
But even with these applications, the social software movement is still in the early stages of development, leading some industry analysts to be less than excited about the sector. As David Senf, manager of IT/business enablement, Solutions Group, for IDC Canada, said, “really there’s no money in it yet.”
Senf said social software is growing steadily. “It has enhanced our ability to communicate and collaborate online and this ability will become far more integrated into the tools we generally use.” But he also asked, “Where’s the money to be made in social software?
It’s hard to define and therefore there’s going to be fewer vendors behind it to drive this type of technology into our living rooms and offices.”
All of which means there is about as much consensus on social software as there is on a basic definition of the category.
Web social
Wirearchy http://www.wirearchy.com
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