Social software elements

1. Identity – a way of uniquely identifying people in the system
2. Presence – a way of knowing who is online, available or otherwise nearby
3. Relationships – a way of describing how two users in the system are related (e.g. in Flickr, people can be contacts, friends of family)
4. Conversations – a way of talking to other people through the system
5. Groups – a way of forming communities of interest
6. Reputation – a way of knowing the status of other people in the system (who’s a good citizen? who can be trusted?)
7. Sharing – a way of sharing things that are meaningful to participants (like photos or videos)

Gene Smith referring to work produced by Matt Webb and Stewart Butterfield

Why do people use social Web apps

Motivations to use social Web applications (paraphrased):
1. Identity – to manage their identity within social groups
2. Uniqueness – to make a unique and valuable contribution
3. Reciprocity – to give in order to receive or because having received
4. Reputation – to build their reputation
5. Sense of efficacy – to do good work that has a positive effect
6. Control – to be in control of the information shared
7. Ownership – to feel a sense of ownership over their online content
8. Attachment to a group – to seek like-minded people
9. Fun – to be entertained

Porter 2008, 98/9

Web application categories

Web applications:
1. Enterprise software (from old-school SAP interfaces duplicated in
   a browser to collaborative tools such as 37signals’ Basecamp)
2. Personal publishing tools (Blogs, flickr etc.)
3. Productivity tools (Writely or Google spreadsheets)