UNC Social Software

SymposiumFred Stutzman and Gary Marchionini

Presentation to CRADLEMarch 20, 2007

http://ibiblio.org/sss

UNC SSS

•Dates: December 8 & 9, 2007

•Location: Freedom Forum Conference Room

•Website: http://ibiblio.org/sss

•In conjunction with the Henderson Lecture

Organizers• Gary Marchionini

• Fred Stutzman

• Paul Jones

• Terrell Russell

• Jacob Kramer-Duffield

• Carolyn Hank

• Laura Sheble

• Songphan Choemprayong

• Jackson Fox

• Kristina Spurgin

• Jung Sun Oh

CFP/Organizing Process

•Dates set

•Experts invited

•CFP sent in October to mailing lists (AIR-L, etc) and posted to blogs.

•28 student abstracts received (20 admit)

Expert Attendees• David Weinberger, Berkman Center,

Folksonomy

• Thomas Vander Wal, Consultant, Folksonomy

• Nicole Ellison, Michigan State University, Social Software

• Cliff Lampe, Michigan State University, Social Software

• Janna Anderson, Elon University and Pew Internet and American Life Project, Social Software

Attendee Profile

SSS Wiki

•The symposium was organized via wiki (Mediawiki)

•Explore: http://ibiblio.org/sss

Henderson Lecture

•David Weinberger on “Everything is Miscellaneous”

•Presented Thu, Dec 7 (Day 0)

Event Walkthrough

•Link to schedule: http://www.ibiblio.org/sss/index.php/Schedule_and_Outline

Social Tagging Themes

• Tagging and identity

• Tags as connective paths

• Motivations for tagging?

• Do we need hierarchies?

• Every tag is sacred

• Contexts and metacontexts in tags

• Is tagging too democratic?

Social Networks Themes

• Do we lose diversity by playing in homogenous spaces? Non-western?

• How do we characterize identity claims?

• What about context? What can be migrated forth?

• Methodology - the participant-observer question

• Do we need to define the ethics of SNS research

Social Networks Themes

• What are the affordances and restriction of SNS?

• Intentionality drives SNS use.

• What does community mean in a SNS environment?

• Transient artifacts in SNS - our traces. What is the role of place in SNS? In 2016 what will we need to understand?

• Who is paying for the SNS use? What is our data worth?

• Faceted identity, what are we claiming with a profile?

Outstanding RQ’s• Social Networks:

• What are the social motivations of creating and maintaining online identity?

• How do young children use SNS and what role do their parents play?

• What is the effect of culture on the degree of personal information disclosure in SNS?

• Gender differences - is social software going to be the killer app that tips the web into a mostly female tool?

• Will SNS make it more likely that we won't have to bowl alone?

• How do SNS participants exit, or "move away" from a communite (i.e. Facebook, Myspace)? What rituals/practices do they perform (forwarding and address, providing notice)?

• How do we evaluate usability in SNS?

• Who should keep the data? Where should they keep it? Who gets to see it?

• How is multifaceted identity supported/not supported in SNS? How can it be supported/expressed?

Outstanding RQ’s• Social Tagging:

• How do we define effectiveness of tags?

• What do people use tags for?

• Tagging of non-text objects (pictures, videos, sound) similar to textual information?

• Are the motivations for tagging personal or social? Is it system dependent?

• How quickly do the meanings of tags decay?

• How would the availability of a large controlled vocabulary affect willingness to tag?

• What types of tags are being applied? Are they of different genre? Are they being assigned for different purposes?

• Tagging as labeling? Does this enforce binaries, stereotypes, norms? On enrich identities? Open up spaces for moving further? Or nail us down?

Thanks•Gary for sponsoring

•All organizers, volunteers (Paul, Carolyn, Terrell, Jacob, Laura, Jung Sun, Songphan, Jackson, Kristina)

•All faculty and students who attended

Next Steps

•ASIST 2008 Social Software Summit

•In conjunction with the IA Summit

•April 2008, Miami FL