Social computing

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Social computing is an area of computer science that is concerned with the intersection of social behavior and computational systems. It involves the design, implementation, and evaluation of interactive systems that support and mediate social interactions. Social computing encompasses a wide range of applications, including social networking services, online communities, collaborative filtering, and social media platforms.

History

The concept of social computing has its roots in the early days of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and groupware systems. The term gained prominence in the early 2000s with the rise of Web 2.0 technologies, which enabled more interactive and user-generated content on the World Wide Web. Early examples of social computing systems include Usenet, bulletin board systems (BBS), and email lists.

Key Concepts

Social Networks

Social networks are structures made up of individuals or organizations, called "nodes," which are connected by one or more specific types of interdependency, such as friendship, kinship, common interest, financial exchange, or relationships of beliefs, knowledge, or prestige. Social network analysis (SNA) is a key method used in social computing to study these structures.

Online Communities

Online communities are virtual communities whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. These communities can be centered around shared interests, goals, or activities. Examples include forums, wikis, and massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs).

Collaborative Filtering

Collaborative filtering is a technique used by some recommender systems. It makes automatic predictions (filtering) about the interests of a user by collecting preferences or taste information from many users (collaborating). The underlying assumption of the collaborative filtering approach is that if a person A has the same opinion as a person B on an issue, A is more likely to have B's opinion on a different issue than that of a randomly chosen person.

Social Media

Social media platforms are online services that facilitate the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and networks. Examples include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.

Applications

Social computing has a wide range of applications in various fields, including:

• Marketing and advertising
• Education
• Healthcare
• Human-computer interaction
• E-commerce

Challenges

Some of the challenges in social computing include:

• Privacy and security
• Data mining and big data
• Ethics and bias
• Scalability and performance

See Also

• Human-computer interaction
• Computer-mediated communication
• Social network analysis
• Recommender system
• Web 2.0

Related Pages

• Social networking service
• Online community
• Collaborative filtering
• Social media
• Groupware
• Usenet
• Bulletin board system
• Email