Social computing

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Social computing refers to the use of social software, a growing trend (as of 2006^{[citation needed]}) in ICT usage of tools that support social interaction and communication. Social computing is based on creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts online through the use of software and technology. Examples of social computing include the use of e-mail for maintaining social relationships, instant messaging for daily microcoordination at one's workplace, or weblogs as a community building tool.

A February 13, 2006 paper by market research company Forrester Research explained social computing as:

Easy connections brought about by cheap devices, modular content, and shared computing resources are having a profound impact on our global economy and social structure. Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies. To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists. –Forrester Research [1]

Technology writer Dion Hinchcliffe has conjectured^[1] that social computing will lead to an internet singularity and cause a paradigm shift sometime in the immediate future.

1 Examples
- 1.1 Web 2.0
- 1.2 Enterprise social software
2 See also
3 References
- 3.1 Footnotes
- 3.2 External links

[edit] Examples

[edit] Web 2.0

Main article: Web 2.0

A generation of internet applications was developed implementing aspects of social computing developed in the early 21st century.

[edit] Enterprise social software

Main article: Enterprise social software

Of particular interest in the realm of social computing is social software for enterprise. Sometimes referred to as "Enterprise 2.0",^[2] a term derived from Web 2.0, this generally refers to the use of social computing in corporate intranets and in other medium- and large-scale business environments. Social computing includes such websites as Myspace and Facebook.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] Footnotes

^ Hinchcliffe, Dion Thinking Beyond Web 2.0: Social Computing and the Internet Singularity 2006
^ A term coined by Andrew McAfee of Harvard Business School in the Spring 2006 MIT Sloan Management Review.
McAfee, Andrew (2006). "Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration", MIT Sloan Management Review Vol. 47, No. 3, pp. 21-28