7. Just for fun!
34%men, 26%women
37%of 18-29 yrs old, and 20%of 65
and over
go online, on any given day, just for
fun…
From Pew Internet Research, for US only
10. WOWismillionsof people with diverse
backgroundscollaborating,socializing,and
learning while having fun. It representsthe
future of real-time collaborative teamsin an
always-on, diversity-intensive,real-time
environment.
WOW is a glimpse into our future.
Joi Ito in Wired Magazine
14. 14
Four drawsof such games
the ability to socialize
an achievement system that givesplayersan
incentive to improve
complex and satisfying strategy that makes
combat fun
underlying narrative that playerswant to
learn more about
Many gamesalso update continuously,
adding featuresand addressing user requests
15. 15
Alone together
Social interaction in online gaming (Ducheneaut
et al. 2006)
Surrounded by others.Feel their presence,not
interacting all the time
Analogy: Reading book in a cafe
Spectacle:Performing for an audience
Analogy: Playing pinball with otherswatching
Social facilitation (Zajonc, 1960)
Improved performance in presence of others(even if
presence ispassive)
Observed even in cockroaches!
16. 16
The web has
become a
social sphere
Massively
multiplayer
online games
Rich
interfaces
enable richer
interactions
20. 20
Hi
I found you while I wassearching my
network at LinkedIn. Let'sconnect directly,
so we can help each other with referrals. If
we connect, both of our networkswill
grow. To add me asyour connection, just
follow the link below.
21. 21
1) I am linked to ->
-> to you --->
--->You are linked to her ->
---> so on…
How it works
•Individualsconnected to each other
•Relationshipscan be marked,hubsidentified
•Concept of six degreesof separation
•“Are you my friend” type of awkwardness
First generation Social Networks
(Friendster, LinkedIn…)
22. Object mediated social networks
“… call for the rethinking of sociality
along linesthat include objectsin
the concept of social relations.”
Katrin-Knorr Cetina
25. 25
1) I share my pics->
-> with you --->
-->You share your pics->
---> with him
How it works
•People share objectsand watch others
•Social connectionsare through objects
•Formation of social streamsof information
with emergence of popular, interesting
items
Social sharing of our stuff (social networks
with objectsin between)
e.g., Flickr, Yahoo answers
26. 26
1) I send video I like ->
-> to you. You passon -->
--> to her, who sendson
to her, who passeson…
How it works
•Individual to individual to individual
•Popularity based navigation helpstrack
“viral” items
Viral sharing (passing on interesting stuff)
e.g., YouTube videos
27. 27
1) I tag my bookmarks
-> you see my tags
-->You share your tags->
How it works
•Saving & tagging your stuff (creating bookmarks).
•Tagsmediate social connections
•Formation of social/conceptual information
streams. Emergence of popular, interesting items
Tag-based social sharing
(linked by concepts…)
e.g., Flickr, del.icio.us
politics
lebanon
Global
voices
politics
technology
Global
voices
web
JAVA
CNN networksblogs
science
science
science
brain
28. 28
1) I find interesting story
-> you rate story
-->Othersrate stories
How it works
•Finding and rating stories
•Popular storiesrise to top
Social news creation
(rating newsstories)
e.g., digg,Newsvine
5
4
34. 34
1: Make system personally useful
For end-user system should have strong personal use
Memorable Personal Snippets(e.g.,Del.icio.us& Flickr)
Self-expression (e.g., Newsvine)
Social status:Digg
Don’t count on altruism
System should thrive on people’sselfishness
35. 35
Bite-sized self-expression
Creative self-expression
Artistic expression (Flickr,YouTube)
Humor (YouTube)
Individual piece should be small
Can create sets& lists
Do Mashups
Simple,guessable URLsfor everything
Leave room for games& social play
Appreciation
Stalking (some!)
Gossip
36. 36
2: Identify symbiotic relationship
between personal & social
Personal snippets> Social stream
Pictures> Organized by Events
Music > Organized by Playlists
37. 37
3: Create porousboundary
between public & private
Earlier systems
Personal (Personal Desktop
Software, e.g., Picasa, EndNote)
OR Social websites(Shutterfly)
Rethink public & private
People share for the right returns
Set defaultsto public, allow easy
change to private
Give user control
Over individual pieces& sets
Delete itemsfrom history
Reset /remove profile
Privacy settings on Flickr
38. 38
4. Allow for levelsof participation
Everyone doesnot need to create!
Implicit creation (creating by consuming)
Remixing—adding value to others’ content
Source: Bradley Horowitz’sweblog, Elatable, Feb. 17, 2006, “Creators, Synthesizers, and Consumers”
39. 39
Why do people digg?
“commenting, digging, burying comments,
typing descriptions, reading hundredsof
articlesand…
…for a lot of nerds, using digg isjust a casual
free-time activity. Entertaining. Fun. Engaging.”
40. 40
how to encourage participation
Insightsfrom Social Psychology
Highlight unique contribution
Allow for smaller local groups
Highlight benefit to self from
Highlight benefit to group
Source:Using social psychology to motivate contributionsto
online communities,Ling et al.2005
41. 41
5. Let people feel the presence
of others
What pathsare well
worn
User profiles/
photos
Real-time updating
Like a
conversation
Sense that others
are out there What people are digging right now!
42. 42
6. And yet, momentsof
Independence…
Choreography: when
alone, when part of group
Prevent mobs
Don’t make it too easy to
mimic others
Incentivesfor originality
& uniqueness
43. 43
Allow for alternative
viewpoints& perspectives
Social sharing can lead to tyranny of
dominant view
People of a group agree
Viewpoint risesto top (popularity lists, tag
clouds)
45. 45
Wise Crowds: Cognitive Diversity
Need many perspectivesfor good answers
Groupsbecome homogenous
Membersbring lesser new information in
Diversity reducesgroupthink
Groupthink worksby shielding membersfrom outside
opinions
Diversity reducesconformity
Chance that you will change opinion to match group
46. 46
Wise Crowds: Independence
Keepspeople’smistakesfrom getting correlated
(uncorrelated mistakesaveraged out)
Encouragespeople to bring in new viewpoints
(diversity)
Concept of Social Proof
Milgram experiment
People assume that groupsknow what they are doing
Assuming crowd iswise,leadsto herd like behavior
Can sometimeslead to good decisions
Information Cascades
Sequence of uninformed choices, building upon each other
47. 47
Wise Crowds: Decentralization
“A crowd of decentralized people working to
solve a problem on their own without any
central effort to guide them, come up with
better solutions, rather than a top-down
driven solution.”
Suroweicki
48. 48
Wise Crowds: Easy Aggregation
A decentralized system can pick right
solution
With easy way for information to be
aggregated acrosssystem
Example: voteson Digg
49. 49
7. Enable Serendipity
Don’t make navigation all about popularity
Accessto some popular stuff (keep thisfast moving)
Make the “long tail” accessible
Popularity asa jump off point to other waysof
exploring
Provide personalization
Recommendationsusing collaborative filtering
Similar tags, content, others
Ad-hoc groups?
51. 51
Thingsto try at home!
Create an account on myspace.com
Read Emergence, Wisdom of Crowds
Play a Multiplayer Online Game (WOW,
Second Life)
Play with an API (try GoogleMapsAPI)
Try a mobile social application (DodgeBall)
Ask your friendswhat they find “fun” on the
web
Real time collaboration and updating provides a very different feel to the web than static or even dynamic web pages. You feel the social presence of people something we are used to in real life. For example, I am standing here, and I can see, feel, hear all of you. For example, take a look at DiggSpy, where you can watch what people have been digging.
This allows a whole new level of socability. It lets you feel the presence of groups of people.
So what is social sharing. Lets start with what its not. Its not the social networks of 2001. How many of you are on Frienster and LinkedIN. How many of you have sent that awkward sounding email to your friends. Hi I found you while
Lets go back, back to 2001. Back to the beginning of social networks. Remember the excitement. How many of you have seen such a diagram? How many of you are a member of such a network?
But how do we really connect?
Encourages independence
Takes advantage of tacit knowledge
People have specialized knowledge
Need some type of loose coordination