ELL's Report

THE REALM OF SOCIALITY: NOTES ON THE DESIGN OF SOCIAL SOFTWARE

This article shows the important role that the sociality have in the design and build of social software, the paper is driven to theorical work on the sociality based in a concept model. To explain: How does the sociality contribute to the design of social software? The authors faced this issue whit help of a Methodology, which is known as Soft Systems Methodology. This Methodology help to decipher the important role that the sociality play in the social software.

But what is the social Software? According to this paper is a software o system that allows us to have a social relation like real life, also social software allow form social groups, make new friends, engage social activities and things like that. And this is achieved whit help of sociality. And the design? This is very confused but this research offers one framework and one conceptual model to the best understanding that design social software. Those will be seen with more detail.

A Soft Systems Methodology approach

So, what is exactly this Methodology, According to Rose (1997): Systems Methodology is a qualitative, interpretative methodology that is particularly suited for the analysis of complex, ill-defined situations where there are divergent views about the definition of the problem, while the reasoning strategy of this methodology is centered around model building and testing.

This authors of this paper base your research follow the steps depicted in Figure 1.

The Root definitions of relevant system are known in this research like realms. A realm is a set of cohesive theoretical constructs which are perceived as one concept if looked at from a distance. This realms are implicitly in a conceptual model. This research build a conceptual model that unravels the broad concept of sociality into four realms: enabling practice, mimicking reality, building identity and actualizing self. Of which we will see more forward.

Conceptual Model

In Figure 2 we can see the conceptual model defined for the authors of this research. This design follows Wenger's theory, where social theory of software design is at the intersection of main axes of relevant traditions.

Concept of sociality as a driving force for the design and development of social software is positioned in the middle.

The conceptual model's vertical axis has two theories of:
Theories of social structure give primacy to institutions, structures, norms and rules.
Theories of situated experience emphasize agency and intentions. They address the relationship of people with their environment.

Regarding the conceptual model's horizontal axis has two theories of:
Theories of social practice emphasize the social mechanisms or resources by which groups organize and coordinate their activities, whereas
Theories of identity are concerned mainly with the social formation of the person and the complex relations between individuals and groups.

Further, the conceptual model has realms on the diagonal axis, representing design areas to be included. This is information crucial to developing an understanding of what humans are (Sloterdijk 2006).
Enabling practice indicates what social phenomenon is being supported by a social software system.
Mimicking reality expresses how this social phenomenon is achieved.
Building identity means the mechanisms that allow for building a proper social identity or constructing and activating relevant working self-concepts.
Actualizing self is where we collect all mechanisms referring to personal identity, ultimately aimed at self-actualization.

Triggers and mechanisms

This paper argues that social software systems should trigger mechanisms that allow us to associate with or form social groups. Such mechanisms would acknowledge human motivations, like eagerness for exploration, curiosity, inquisitiveness, civilization, valuation of belonging, achieving self-realization, enjoying oneself, and so on.

A Design Framework

Based on the conceptual model, they developed a design framework that could help designers and developers of software systems to create software that invites and supports its users to engage in social activities online as well as offline, to associate with or form social groups, ultimately leading to seeking or enjoying companionship. This Design Framework is depicted in the figure 3.

Conclusion

This article lets us see clearly the great role of sociology today for software development and this has grown exponentially in recent years, one of the main points is that somehow this is a good mechanism to reach people more easy from the web or software (marketing) and what better way to do that with the knowledge of sociology.
Also note, Design social software is not easy for developers because they does not have the necessary knowledge on the subject. This article provides a clear way of how sociology is formed and how it fits into software development, and provides a framework for be able to design social software will be easier to develop.

Finally I consider that this paper is excellent to understand the complex relation between sociality and social software development. Clearly I understand that the social software systems trigger mechanisms that allow us to associate with or form social groups. And those mechanisms are given by the theory of sociality.