I love the Kenneth Boulding quote in Stowe Boyd’s article, “We make our tools, and then they shape us”. That’s the way in which civilization has developed. I can really see that social software is changing the way in which we socialize. And as social software develops new abilities, this ongoing change process continues. The early blogs were largely in one direction, broadcasts of rants, personal journals bared to the online world, with occasional comments coming back. An extension of the diary. Now communication on social software is multi-directional, involving group interactions and reflecting all the unpredictability of those interactions.
I also like Boyd’s description of social software: “tools that depend on social convention more than on software features to facilitate interaction and collaboration.”
I was unaware of the widespread use of social software in the business world and looked up the names Boyd mentioned (Ryze, etc.); it seems the contact and networking through such software open huge doors!
I also like Bion’s quote used by Shirky: “humans are fundamentally individual and fundamentally social”. Group cohesion takes over at an early stage—we are essentially herd animals. All this sounds very philosophical, and essentially a study of social software seems to resemble a study of human psychology—because we are examining how humans interact in a new environment. What we do online with social software is governed by who we are. I have often felt there was a lack of direction in many cc’d emails and blog entries I have read as a lurker over the past year or so. Focus is hard to maintain in the enormity of the online environment. That’s why Shirky’s guidelines for group size are important. And so is his discussion of the fact that the committed core group has rights that trump individual rights when the individual breaks the rules.
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