Social computing is about the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It is based on creating or recreating social conventions and social contexts through the use of software and technology. Blogs, email, instant messaging, social network services, wikis, social bookmarking etc are often called social software . They are software applications where people interact socially.
Social computing has become more widely known because of its relationship to a number of recent trends. These include the growing popularity of social software and Web 2.0, increased academic interest in social network analysis, the rise of open source as a viable method of production, and a growing conviction that all of this can have a profound impact on daily life.
Social network sites as web-based services that allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system. The nature and nomenclature of these connections may vary from site to site. They not only allow individuals to meet strangers, but also they enable users to articulate and make visible their social networks.
Among the Social network sites, there exists large number of Social Network. Participants are not necessarily "networking" or looking to meet new people; instead, they are primarily communicating with people who are already a part of their extended social network. They primarily interact via communication media such as newsletters, telephone, email, online social networks or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. If the mechanism is a computer network, it is called an online community. Virtual and online communities have also become a supplemental form of communication between people who know each other primarily in real life.
Easy connections brought about by cheap devices, modular content, and shared computing resources are having a profound impact on our global economy and social structure. Social computing is possible to design digital systems that support useful functionality by making social information available to their users. The information that is produced by a group of people is used to provide or enhance the functioning of a system.
Over all, Social Computing refers to systems that support the gathering, representation, processing, use, and dissemination of information that is distributed across social collectivities such as teams, communities, organizations, and markets. In this course, I would like to learn some social computing methods, such as algorithms to classify the information extracting from the web and the way to interact more actively with other people through social software etc.
