What are the building blocks of social software?
In the last couple of years at least 80% of my projects had some component that helped facilitate communication and sharing of information between users. Next year this will probably be 100%. Intuitively I have some ideas about presence, identity, reputation etc. but I’ve really struggled to provide a framework of what tools I should use and when.
Currently I draw inspiration from the Webb/Smith/Butterfield model:
As well as the Social Patterns on Yahoo Pattern Library but now I eagerly await Erin Malone’s and Christian Crumlish’s book Designing Social Interfaces. You can view the work in progress on their wiki.
We’re all still trying to suss out the building blocks and common questions: Do you want to promote competition, what are the repercussions? Are your user’s sensitive about privacy and security, how do you build for it? How is a reputation system built? How do you interject game mechanics to make your application enjoyable? How do you incentivize leaders to continue to be involved in a community? How do you engage lurkers to be participants?
I’m hopeful that the social software toolbox will become more recognizable very soon and that these questions and many more will be answered with the book!