Social computing is the use of computers and digital devices to allow people to interact and collaborate over the internet. It enables people to connect, learn, play games, and build communities based on shared interests. Companies are using social media strategies to take advantage of these connections. New mobile devices and software make social computing more convenient and seamless. The most recent software developments aim to improve interactions between users and computers through context awareness.
In its simplest form, social computing is the use of computers and digital devices such as smartphones to allow two or more people to interact and collaborate over the Internet. The popular trend emerged with the introduction of Web 2.0, which created a single user-friendly online platform. Through it, people and computers have interacted through intuitive software that recognizes a user’s behavior and formulates hypotheses based on these actions. Built on the basic principles of an open platform for accessing information, flexible and intuitive web-based software, and transparent communication for sharing collective knowledge, social computing enables people, businesses and institutions to create virtual worlds where users participate in a variety of ways.
People use social computing to connect with others, learn new information, play games online in real time, and build communities based on shared interests. Hundreds of millions of people around the world use social computing to compare prices, post reviews and discuss issues. Most sites are free and publicly available over an Internet connection, so these accumulated conversations, comments, and ratings are changing the way people interact with businesses.
The trend is also changing the way companies do business. By gathering insights into social computing, companies develop social media strategies to take advantage of these connections that continually occur online. E-mail remains closely linked to social computing by acting as a filter. For example, members of networking communities receive email alerts about new posts in their favorite online communities; companies use email lists gathered from a customer database to send newsletters or special offers. Recipients can filter messages and access the information most important to them.
While people have been practicing social networking for centuries, social computing through the Internet has helped users build new relationships as well. Based on the concept of six degrees of separation, the practice of online social networking assumes that two people in the world can connect through no more than five other people. A person invites their contacts to join an online community. These contacts, in turn, invite their contacts, and those contacts invite people they know to join. Through these interconnected online communities, users meet “good-to-know” people they are unlikely to meet in any other situation.
New and emerging mobile devices and software, such as media tablets that allow users to see and hear each other as they network online, make social computing more convenient and seamless. The most recent software developments aim to improve interactions between users and computers through context awareness. These tools recognize user behaviors, as well as user preferences and emotions, and use that knowledge to improve collaboration and communication.
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