Like a small child that just won’t leave you alone “Social Software” is a term that keeps yelling for my attention. I am investigating how to bring a community together so that it can begin accessing its collective knowledge and Social Software tools show promise.
Social Software loosely describes software that has a brief to join people and ideas rather than produce output. Of course, like any new term that describes something complex the precise definition of Social Software varies tremendously but for now I’m going to work with the definition that suits my focus. Software to help people join together.
You might ask what is new about that? Email has been on your desk forever and you are an Instant Messenger user as well. Communication with others is easy. Yes it is but what about communication with the people you don’t yet know exist? How do you find them? And once found, how do you share an history of your conversations so that others, as yet unknown, can benefit.
As a blogger I have been sharing my thoughts via this site for a year now. The process of blogging has introduced me to a number of people globally who share similar thoughts to me. Some are further along in their thinking whilst others are behind. No matter as we are all conversing about the topics that interest us and without Social Software would never have met. Few of my immediate friends or colleagues share the same interests as myself in this regard and so I need others, wherever they are in the world, to speak with.
Blogging however is still a bit like email. It relies on chained referrals (I quote you, somebody quotes me…) or search engine matches. Recently I have come across a form of introduction agency software that helps you to quickly find people with similar interests, form communities and work together.
Ryze is a networking tool that lets me put up more information about myself than a simple search engine would but what struck me quickly is the pro-active, positive nature of the site. Ryze is not about a technology, it is about people. For an good idea of what Social Software is about I suggest you take a look. Interestingly many of the people I spoke of earlier have pages up. Contrast this with GlobeAlive! which doesn’t have the same vibe about it and has a focus on points scoring rather than communication.
Social Software puts a name to the software I’ve been working with for a while and helps solidify some of the ideas I’ve been exploring. If this post does the same for you I’d love to hear about it. ~~~~