** My Intellectual Flakes **

To continue on my earlier post on social software… A weblog by Barb Dybwad confirmed my earlier thoughts. He conceptualized Web 2.0 as the continuum between the personal and the social. Services like del.icio.us, first and foremost, enable the organization of information in personally meaningful ways. The social functions are just an exciting side effect.

The tool of Web 2.0 exist in this interplay between information we organize for ourselves and that which we share with others.

The social functions on delicious manifest in several ways: 1) other people might find useful and related information; 2) you can evaluate the popularity of the bookmarked site; 3) other people can have a better understanding of you as a person, e.g. your interest.

---

Stowe Boyd seems the person who coined the term “social software”. In this article, he posits that social software is the opposite of project-oriented collaboration tool. The social software is characterized by its support for conversational interaction, social feedback and social networks.

“Social software is based on supporting the desire of individuals to
affiliate, their desire to be pulled into groups to achieve their
personal goals. Contrast that with the groupware approach to things
where people are placed into groups defined organizationally or
functionally. “

I think the difference lies in the types or the nature of the group/community. Probably at core, blogs are personal networking tool. So it’s personal first, social functions second. Conversely, groupware put organization/group first, individuals second. However, since social software has been such an umbrella concept which encompass web-based technologies like wiki, blogs, social bookmarking, I don’t think they are all the same. Wiki, compared to blog, is more a groupware than personal tool. I do agree that social interaction enabled through blogs are drastically different from discussion forum.

This makes me to reflect on the enthusiastic embrace of social software. People are so into the “social” aspect, turning away from the personal and individual attributes.

In essense, social software is grass-root tool. Social feedback, rating scheme seem inherent in the social softwares.