I would agree, that at the present, social computing is somewhat of an umbrella term for the technologies and virtual spaces that allow users to create, describe and share content, and for the communities that arise around them; however, it is unknown how much longer this will last. Each year the social computing umbrella seems to be growing. Social computing has grown and expanded into unforeseen areas. I have no reason to believe that this will discontinue.
If we are to consider social computing as an umbrella that encompasses technologies and virtual spaces, then social software must be a smaller umbrella that casts a shadow over social networks and various online communities. Ellison defined social network sides as “web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system”.
As time goes on, and as advertisers, corporations, and various other individuals infiltrate social network sites, it appears that social network sites have become more bounded. There are more restrictions in place. Many of these restrictions prevent users from having the freedom to browse these sites. Content is often restricted and individuals are often forced to view unrelated advertisements.
Quite often there is no shared relationship amongst users. This has become more prevalent as individuals seek free advertising. Many times individuals within the community need to go to extraordinary measures to ensure that they create lists of users who they share an actual connection with. Again, to view and or traverse the system, one often needs to jump through various hurdles. According to Ellison, “Social network sites also provide rich sources of naturalistic behavioral data.” I would agree with this contention, however, it is for this very reason that it presents itself as a such a great venue for advertising. As a result, Individual likes, dislikes, preferences, etc. are saved. As technology has advanced so has the ability to target advertising. My experiences with this increase in advertising have definitely impacted my social computing experiences.
Beer and Burrows alluded to this when speaking of news in disguise. They maintained that “When advertising and public relations are disguised as news, the line between fact and fiction becomes blurred. Instead of more community, knowledge, or culture, all that Web 2.0 really delivers is more dubious content from anonymous sources. Thus far, there have been loose internal regulations that have monitored these social networks. Nardia’s research has shown that bloggers in the sample seemed fairly unconcerned about privacy. I would anticipate that this attitude will change and we will see new laws that will impact social networks.
My definition of social computing would be: “social computing is an ever changing umbrella that may or may not encompass technologies and virtual spaces that sometimes allow user to create, describe and share certain types of content, which allows communities to arise from them”.
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