Social Software

Up to now most ‘social software’ has been quite functional and similar to stripped down content management system. This means that it has lacked an artistic form that would make it graspable and meaningful and lacked a motivation for people to use it beyond the enthusiasm of a workshop organiser. In this research we seek to design more proactive collaborative software systems that answer the question of how to engage people and how to keep them in an ongoing productive relationship.

The ‘generative’ aspect in this idea refers to the wish to make the software an active participant in the collaborative process. Participants materials could be rearranged, reassigned or augmented in order to provoke their continuing involvement through a kind of dialogue.

One issue here is how far to implement the process in the software or technical structure itself and how much to leave to the collaborative event, e.g. the social organisation of a workshop. There is a play off between the functionality and self sufficiency of the software and the degree to which it might require certain external organisational structures. So there are elements of organisational design, workflow and social context required here as well. After all, one piece of software cannot do everything.

The experience of the software should also be flexible enough so that participants feel they can achieve something within an identifiable space of time but have a reason to go on and develop further – like a sequence of provisional closures.

The new software will include the ability to recognise and incorporate material covered by Creative Commons licenses. It will use intelligent and machine readable versions to offer licenses to content owners, turning them into participants by using ownership as the basis of a collaboration.