Review of Social Programs - Jared Mallett 40998617

Over the last two decades, the internet has transformed from a simple ftp used only by the rich and powerful to a massive international network of data with over a trillion different websites and over a billion users worldwide (1). One of the more recent crazes to sweep across the internet is that of social networking, web services that allow a user to interact with other similarly-minded users through the various features of the website.

The way this interaction takes place varies as much as it would in face to face interaction; from allowing users to share their favourite music, to sending personal messages back and forth. These services are wide enough in variety to suit the needs of most users, whether they be business professionals who may use facebook to keep track of associates to the socially inept person who never leaves their home and spends countless hours creating a false identity so that they can hide behind the anonymity of the internet and validate their existence by accumulating over a hundred so-called ‘friends’ whose false identities share viewpoint on some trivial topic.

As part of the course requirements for COMP3505, I was required to immerse myself in social computing and sign up for several popular social networking websites, use them, and reflect on my experience. This reflection will focus on my experience with the course-assigned websites Facebook, DelIcioUs, Last.fm, Twitter, Google Calender, Blogger and Flickr, as well as well as making some observations from my experiences with other social networking websites and massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs).

Facebook - I have been told that facebook is the largest social networking website on the internet at the moment. Signing up for an account is easy enough, though entering your personal details can be a little clunky if you do not wish to enter the school you attended or other similar details. I also found it difficult to skip the step of account creation where the new user enters their instant messaging email address and the system spams every contact on that account, attempting to get them to sign up for their own account, much to the annoyance of many MSN and AIM users (I personally have received 471 such emails). The functionality of facebook as fairly good, allowing users to upload and share photos, send messages back and forth, and allow or restrict how their personal details are shown as they see fit, among many other features. I can see facebook as a very usable service, just not one I want to continue using, as I much prefer to keep contact people through face to face interaction.

Del.Icio.Us - This is another social networking website that features all of the stock standard social networking features (uploading personal details, tracking friends etc), but largely acts as a repository for adding and sharing internet bookmarks. Another feature of Del.Icio.Us is keeping track of how many people have bookmarked the same websites as you, and recommending additional websites of interest based on the bookmark lists of others. The usefulness of this functionality is dependant on how and why you use Del.Icio.Us, but is interesting nonetheless.

Last.FM - Once again, Last.FM has all of the friend finding/adding/stalking capabilities of the last two websites, but this one focuses on music. By downloading an addon for their music player, users are able to record and upload the tracks they are listening to (lovingly nicknamed ‘scrobbling’) and find people who enjoy the same music. Last.FM also allows users to read and edit information about the artists and songs they are listending to, as well as create lists of their favourite tracks, and see the lists of others. The Last.FM system recommends additional music to the users based on the listening habits of others. I quite enjoyed some of the features of Last.FM, especially the easy access to discographies and biographies of the artists I was listening to. Once again, I wouldn’t use the friends lists so much, but I’ll definitely keep Last.FM after my course obligations are over. There are some things I could say about the usability of the Last.FM website itself, but that’s something for another long-winded blog post.

Twitter - This is the single most pointless thing I have ever seen. Twitter allows the user to track their friends and see short messages they submit via SMS, instant messenger or the website itself, answering the question: “What are you up to?” There is an option on the website to sign up for SMS updates on your friend’s messages for the cost of a standard SMS. I’m sorry, but I don’t want to pay 25 cents to find out that my friend is eating breakfast! The option to ‘twitter’ via sms or instant messenger seems nifty until you realise that you’re sending a text message, or going to a website every few hours to say “I’m taking time out of what I was doing to write this message and hope someone out there cares.” If someone deems it important enough for me to know what they’re doing at a specific moment, they can call me, save me the trouble of logging in.

Google Calender - Yet another splinter off the google monster. This site allows you to plan your schedule online and share it with the world. This feature would be handy in finding out when you and your friends are all free to do something, but isn't the core of social interaction actually contacting these people? Why can you not call them up and ask them? That being said, the interface is neat and intuitive, with a very user-focused design.

Blogger - One of many web-logging websites on the internet. It's simple enough, easy to use and allows for multiple-user collaboration through the use of collaborative blogs like this one(2). Being able to co-author articles and sections of articles, as well as provide feedback to your fellow users allows for a real sense of community when creating material for the blog. Personally, I prefer livejournal, but to each their own.

Flickr - This yahoo-run web service is basically a repository for pictures. Flickr allows users to store images there for viewing by contacts, or to be used with other online tools. A lot of blogging tools now have the option to integrate the user's Flickr or Photobucket account and allows them to use the pictures in blogs or on social networking profile pages. It was a pleasure to work with, if a little slow at loading on some different browsers.

The field of social computing has brought about many interesting and innovative tools to enhance our lives and help us connect with like-minded people all across the world. One thing that amazes me though is how much about themselves people are willing to divulge to complete strangers. Personally, I have experienced two such instances.

Approximately two years ago I ran a livejournal account writing hate-mail to the BBC about their show, Brainiac. In the height of its popularity I had about 50 readers. Three of them managed somehow to track me down and find my personal MSN instant messaging account and added me as a friend. All three of them had issues of some sort and told a complete stranger at length about their failing relationship, their abusive drunken parents, what have you. Only one of these people was nice enough for me to not block within seconds, and she remains a good friend of mine to this day, despite having never met her. It is amazing how much these three people came to trust me simply because I wrote humorous profane letters to a broadcasting company.

The other time this happened to me was while playing the massively multiplayer online role-playing game World of Warcraft. A player who I group up with frequently was having relationship issues and trusted me enough to divulge the details and ask my advice, despite us never meeting. I actually had the privelige of meeting this person last year when I visited Melbourne and I have been in contact with her since, but it doesn't change the fact that I earnt this much trust through playing a computer game with someone in another state.

WoW and other MMORPGs also raise another interesting point about social programs - the idea of proximity in a collaborative virtual environment. In an environment such as an MMORPG, a user’s avatar represents the user. The avatar’s location, orientation and appearance indicate where the user’s attention is focused. In the example below, I was having a short conversation with the aforementioned friend while in the game. She asked me about five minutes into the conversation where in the game world I was:



After finding out, she moved her character to meet with mine and continued the chat as we were doing before.



I tried to replicate this behaviour in other players, but unfortunately didn’t get a chance to screenshot it. I would start a conversation with a random person then start to run away, or turn my character away from them. Surely enough, they’d move to be facing me. The method or nature of the conversation did not change in any way, but this gave the impression that we were talking face-to-face, rather than from different parts of the world. This is similar to the conclusions from the HYDRA project in 1992 (3), adding the idea of eye contact and directed attention to a teleconference. For more information on this area of HCI, I strongly recommend taking a look at this article.

Social computing has made many advances over the last few years, and while I don’t use them very often myself, it is very interesting to observe people and their behaviour change over time as these social programs become a larger part of our everyday lives.

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1. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2153rank.html

2. Since I am also posting this to my personal blog, I should clarify that I am talking about the COMP3505 course blog.

3. http://www.billbuxton.com/hydra.html