Networks and Social Software

Imagining a New Kinship of Networks

Presentation to Software Socialism Seminar 8th November 2002

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Social Software: Contexts

A context for Social Software
Individuals and communities have growing capacity to communicate Social Relationships are re-imagined in a context in which networks are understood as defining features of the world Understanding and consciousness of networks enables the generation of social capital

The Anthropological Context of Social Software

A long tradition of devices which allow us to think through, map and analyse social relationships A potential contribution to the art and science of re-thinking relationships in a networked world

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The Arrival You must bewho? Do we know each other?

Instinct on arrival in any social environment?
Putting people together: social bearings and relatedness Interpreting the flow of meaning within the social webs through which we operate A political economy of information exchange, reciprocity and flow

A person is people
Max Weber : social relationships are constructions of people taking each other into account Difficult to understand a person unless you appreciate their wider social environment

I know, and I know that everybody else knows and I know that everybody else knows that everybody else knows Robert Redfield

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Kinship and Relationships

Parents
Community

Clan

Organisation

Nation

Kinship
As logic is to philosophy, kinship is to anthropologybut dont leave the room now The nature of relatedness and the organisational logic of a community
Descent Affinity Siblings Moiety Pedigree Lineage Tribes

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Mapping Networked Places

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Mapping Networked People

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A Bloggers View(s)

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Buddygraph

A personal visualization tool which allows anyone like you to see how your social network is connected. A social network is simply who knows who This software works by analyzing an individual's email files to generate a list of connections. A surprising amount of data comes from its ability to form groups out of individuals

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Creating Social Glue from Links

The world of Networks and Relationships
Consociates: daily, face to face interaction Contemporaries: aware that they live, make assumptions about them, and how they live, but never meet them. Predecessors: we cannot influence, but aware of and influenced by their actions Successors: no experience of but we can orient our actions towards them.

Growing networks, interconnections through which we live our lives and need to navigate Social Software, a kinship tool for the post-industrial, mobile, networked information age Which helps us track, understand and intervene to nurture social capital

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Ideas Bazaar
Ideas Bazaar specialises in ethnographic research. We help organisations and businesses better understand their audiences and environment. The insight, understanding and ideas we generate enables our clients to think, innovate, design and communicate more successfully. We have a special interest and wide experience in the area of technology, media and communications We believe passionately in the ability of ethnographic research and anthropological insight to add value to your business or organisation. Find out more at www.ideasbazaar.co.uk

Call us on +44 (0) 20 4978 8142 or email at contact@ideasbazaar.co.uk

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