Architecting Social Spaces“Because we’re going to be serving steak, we’re going

to be using steak knifes. And since we have steak knifes, people might be stabbing each other. And therefore we need to put fences around all the

tables”

Information architects

In which we map the unknown territories of

profiles, forums, and user-generated content, encountering trolls and flamers along the way

•Who are your users? (understand your base)

•Why does your business need you to make a Web site? (understand the business)

•What are your materials? (understand the technology)

B=f(P,E)

Behavior is a Function of a Person and his Environment

The role of information architecture in a socially-

generated information space is very different—it’s all about rules and tools.

Architecture must be adaptive

“People are different sizes; they sit in different ways. And yet there is a tendency in modern times to make all chairs alike.”

Identity

Conflict: Who can you trust online?

Resolution: You must give each user an identity, and allow customization. The identity acts as a way for the user to express his personality, and is typically accessed and protected via a uniquelog-in.

Participation is rewarded in the identity with a combination of reputation and ability to collect items in the system (bookmarks, history, relationships, and so on).

Elements of identity

To allow your user to create an identity on your site successfully, you need to provide certain tools. The elements of online identity are:

• Profile• Avatar• Presence• Reputation

Relationships

Conflict: On a Web site of thousands or millions of people, how do you make sure you can keep track of the people whom you care about?

Resolution: Create ways that people can identify, connect, and organize the people they care about, as well as the information those people produce. The complexity of the classification of relationships depends on how your customers will use your Web site.

Elements of relationships

Relationships on your site are just as important as your users’ relationships in real life, at least you hope they will be. The elements of relationships are:

• Contacts• Groups• Norms

Activity

Conflict: If there is nothing to do on a site, then it doesn’t matter if all your friends are there. The site has no more usefulness than an address book, and it won’t get affection or traffic.

Resolution: Find activities to support on your site that are useful to individuals but are much improved by group participation.

Elements of activity

The more things your users are able to do on your site, the more time and energy they’ll spend there. The elements of activity are:

• Sharing• Conversations• Collaborating• Collective wisdom

Sharing

People share hints on how to get through life, and they grow emotional connections along the way.

Conversations

Conversations and communication—that’s the heart and soul of a community. No matter how much software we build, people build the relationships, and they build them out of words first.

Collaborating

Social software was originally envisioned as a tool to allow workgroups to collaborate. While the “social” part may have swept the Web, there are still plenty of tools that focus on letting smaller groups with focus get things done.

Collective wisdom

As opposed to collaboration, in which the approach is working together toward a known goal, collective wisdom approaches on Web sites leverage people acting individually in self-interest and then aggregate those choices into patterns.

Architecture for Humans

Humans are complex, and the Web is dynamic. It’s likely there will be many more new innovations and new patterns of excellence as they are refined. Yet human contact and collaboration is not new.