1. Social Architecture: Modeling the Next Generation
Sean Madden
Webvisions 2007, Portland OR

2. Social networks have
revolutionized the way people
think about software, from both
the business and consumer
perspective
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

3. Passion Centric
vs.
Passion Agnostic
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

4. I Love @#&!
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

5. Shaun the Stylist
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

6. The Social Software Toolbox
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

7. Tagging
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

8. Tagging is reinventing information architecture
as we know it
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

9. Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

10. Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

11. Tags create a highly-malleable cataloguing system
Tags communicate “meta data” to the masses
Tags are easy
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

12. Voting
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

13. “... I suspect in a matter of a few years a Web
page without a dynamic ratings system attached
will trigger the same response that a Web page
without hyperlinks triggers today”
Stephen B. Johnson Emergence
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

14. People understand voting
Voting promotes trust and believability
Voting enables the community to decide what it
feels is important
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

15. Extension
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

16. Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

17. Extension empowers your users
Extension increases stickiness
Extension establishes credibility and exhibits
confidence
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

18. Customization
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

19. Customization in the social space represents an
entirely new software paradigm
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

20. Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

21. Customization allows for self-expression
Customization increases sense of ownership
Customization is a di erentiator
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

22. All of these combine to form what are being
called
self-organizing systems
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

23. Purposeful Self-Organization
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

24. Tagging is a conscious choice, it is work
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

25. Voting pushes towards the mean,
it does not organize
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

26. In its current state, customization is too manual
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

27. Ironically, these tools detract from the primary
goals of our systems
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

28. The next generation of social systems should
organize information without inhibiting the acts
of creating and consuming
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

29. Ubiquitous Computing
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

30. Ubiquitous computing is a model of computing
in which computer functions are integrated into
everyday life, often in an invisible way
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

31. It is not only inevitable, it is already here
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

32. Mobile Phones
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

33. QR Codes
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

34. Locality
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

35. Aside from designing directly for it, we can learn
from its basic principles
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

36. Calm Technology
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

37. Beautiful Seams
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

38. A point of presence becomes a field of presence
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

39. Enabling our networks to leverage ubiquitous
computing will reduce the cognitive load required
to achieve the desired task
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

40. Emergence
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

41. An emergent system is one of great complexity
that is created without oversight from a “master
designer” and comes about through agents
following their own set of simple, local rules
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

42. Ants
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

43. More is di erent
Ignorance is useful
Encourage random encounters
Look for patterns
Pay attention to your neighbors
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

44. Truly emergent organization can be hard to pin to
human behavior
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

45. But we can start working towards it
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

46. Newsvine Groups
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

47. Pattern Matching / Behavior Recognition
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

48. The Genetic Algorithm
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

49. The outer boundaries of today’s systems are
defined by our own intellectual limitations
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

50. Release the prioritization / creation of our back-
end systems to the community in the same
manner as we have released our IA through
tagging
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

51. Create a base set of rules and let the community
grow /cultivate them through use
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

52. A crowd is at its wisest when it is:
Diverse, Independent,
Decentralized, and Aggregated
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

53. Purposeful Self-Organization becomes...
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

54. Emergent Organization
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

55. It’s already here in some capacity
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

56. An emergent system is a less bounded system
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

57. It is time to take the next step forward and stop
putting the hard problems o to another day
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

58. Social Networks have limitless potential, but we
need to work towards designing them that way
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007

60. Acknowledgments
Special Thanks To
Jasmyn Madden, Nick Finck, Valerie Casey, Je Veen,
Tom Watson, Jina Bolton, Mykola Bilokonsky
Photo Credits
http://flickr.com/photos/74833619@N00/93440933/
http://flickr.com/photos/boogah/151536846/
http://flickr.com/photos/damgaard/449566520/
http://flickr.com/photos/add/187811645/
http://flickr.com/photos/catskillsgrrl/99502267/
http://flickr.com/photos/whateverthing/128106986/
Webvisions 2007 Social Architecture May 3rd, 2007