Editing Social software (section)

== Types ==

=== Instant messaging ===
{{main|Instant messaging}}
An ''[[instant messaging]]'' application or [[client (computing)|client]] allows one to communicate with another person over a network in real time, in relative privacy. One can add friends to a contact or buddy list by entering the person's email address or messenger ID. If the person is online, their name will typically be listed as available for chat. Clicking on their name will activate a chat window with space to write to the other person, as well as read their reply.

=== Text chat ===
{{main|Text chat}}
[[Internet Relay Chat]] (IRC) and other [[online chat]] technologies allow users to join and communicate with many people at once, publicly. Users may join a pre-existing chat room or create a new one about any topic. Once inside, you may type messages that everyone else in the room can read, as well as respond to/from others. Often there is a steady stream of people entering and leaving. Whether you are in another person's chat room or one you've created yourself, you are generally free to invite others online to join you in that room.

=== Collaborative software ===
{{main|Collaborative software}}
The goal of collaborative software, also known as groupware, such as [[Moodle]], Landing pages, Enterprise Architecture, and [[SharePoint]], is to allow subjects to share data – such as files, photos, text, etc. for the purpose of project work or schoolwork. The intent is to first form a group and then have them collaborate. Clay Shirky defines social software as "software that supports group interaction". Since groupware supports group interaction (once the group is formed), it would consider it to be social software.

=== Internet forums ===
{{main|Internet forum}}
Originally modeled after the real-world paradigm of electronic [[bulletin board system|bulletin boards]] of the world before internet was widely available, ''internet forums'' allow users to post a "topic" for others to review. Other users can view the topic and post their own comments in a linear fashion, one after the other. Most forums are public, allowing anybody to sign up at any time. A few are private, gated communities where new members must pay a small fee to join.

Forums can contain many different categories in a [[hierarchy]], typically organized according to topics and subtopics. Other features include the ability to post images or files or to quote another user's post with special formatting in one's own post. Forums often grow in popularity until they can boast several thousand members posting replies to tens of thousands of topics continuously.

There are various standards and claimants for the market leaders of each software category. Various add-ons may be available, including translation and spelling correction software, depending on the expertise of the operators of the bulletin board. In some industry areas, the bulletin board has its own commercially successful achievements: free and paid hardcopy magazines as well as professional and amateur sites.

Current successful services have combined new tools with the older [[newsgroup]] and [[mailing list]] paradigm to produce hybrids. Also, as a service catches on, it tends to adopt characteristics and tools of other services that compete. Over time, for example, [[wiki user page]]s have become social portals for individual users and may be used in place of other portal applications.

=== Wikis ===
{{main|Wikis|Wiki software}}
In the past, web pages were only created and edited by web designers that had the technological skills to do so. Currently there are many tools that can assist individuals with web content editing. Wikis allow novices to be on the same level as experienced web designers because wikis provide easy rules and guidelines. Wikis allow all individuals to work collaboratively on web content without having knowledge of any markup languages. A wiki is made up of many content pages that are created by its users. Wiki users are able to create, edit, and link related content pages together. The user community is based on the individuals that want to participate to improve the overall wiki. Participating users are in a democratic community where any user can edit any other user's work.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Farkas|first1=Meredith G.|title=Social Software in Libraries: Building Collaboration, Communication, and Community Online|date=2007|publisher=Information Today|location=Medford, N.J.|isbn=978-1573872751|pages=[https://archive.org/details/socialsoftwarein0000fark/page/67 67–68]|edition=2nd print.|url=https://archive.org/details/socialsoftwarein0000fark/page/67}}</ref>

=== Blogs ===
{{main|Blog}}
Blogs, short for web logs, are like online journals for a particular person. The owner will post a message periodically, allowing others to comment. Topics often include the owner's daily life, views on politics, or about a particular subject important to them.

Blogs mean many things to different people, ranging from "online journal" to "easily updated personal website." While these definitions are technically correct, they fail to capture the power of blogs as social software. Beyond being a simple homepage or an online diary, some blogs allow comments on the entries, thereby creating a discussion forum. They also have blogrolls (i.e., links to other blogs which the owner reads or admires) and indicate their social relationship to those other bloggers using the [[XHTML Friends Network|XFN]] social relationship standard. [[Pingback]] and [[trackback]] allow one blog to notify another blog, creating an inter-blog conversation. Blogs engage readers and can build a virtual community around a particular person or interest. Blogging has also become fashionable in business settings by companies who use [[enterprise social software]].

=== Collaborative real-time editors ===
{{main|Collaborative real-time editor}}
Simultaneous editing of a text or media file by different participants on a network was first demonstrated on research systems as early as the 1970s, but is now practical on a global network.  Collaborative real-time editing is now utilized, for example, in film editing and in cloud-based office applications.

=== Prediction markets ===
{{main|Prediction market}}
Many prediction market tools have become available (including some [[free software]]) that make it easy to predict and bet on future events. This software allows a more formal version of social interaction, although it qualifies as a robust type of social software.

=== Social network services ===
{{main|Social network service}}
Social network services allow people to come together online around shared interests, hobbies or causes. For example, some sites provide meeting organization facilities for people who practice the same sports. Other services enable business networking and social event meetup.

Some large [[wiki]]s have effectively become social network services by encouraging user pages and portals.

=== Social network search engines ===
Social network search engines are a class of search engines that use social networks to organize, prioritize or filter search results. There are two subclasses of social network search engines: those that use '''explicit''' social networks and those that use '''implicit''' social networks.

*'''Explicit''' social network search engines allow people to find each other according to explicitly stated social relationships. [[XHTML Friends Network]] allows people to share their relationships on their own sites, thus forming a decentralized/distributed online social network, in contrast to centralized social network services listed in the previous section.
*'''Implicit''' social network search engines allow people to filter search results based upon classes of social networks they trust, such as a shared political viewpoint. This was called an [[epistemic filter]] in the 1993 "State of the Future Report" from the [[American Committee for the United Nations University]] which predicted that this would become the dominant means of search for most users.

Lacking trustworthy explicit information about such viewpoints, this type of social network search engine mines the web to infer the topology of online social networks. For example, the [[NewsTrove]] search engine infers social networks from content - sites, blogs, pods and feeds - by examining, among other things, subject matter, link relationships and grammatical features to infer social networks.

=== Deliberative social networks ===
Deliberative social networks are webs of discussion and debate for decision-making purposes. They are built for the purpose of establishing sustained relationships between individuals and their government. They rely upon informed opinion and advice that is given with a clear expectation of outcomes.

=== Commercial social networks ===
Commercial social networks are designed to support business transaction and to build a trust between an individual and a brand, which relies on opinion of product, ideas to make the product better, enabling customers to participate with the brands in promoting development, service delivery and a better customer experience.{{Citation needed|date=July 2007}}

=== Social guides ===
A social guide recommending places to visit or contains information about places in the real world, such as coffee shops, restaurants and wifi hotspots, etc.

=== Social bookmarking ===
{{main|Social bookmarking|Enterprise bookmarking}}
Some web sites allow users to post their list of [[Internet bookmark|bookmarks]] or favorite websites for others to search and view them. These sites can also be used to meet others through sharing common interests. Additionally, many social bookmarking sites allow users to browse through websites and content shared by other users based on popularity or category.  As such, use of social bookmarking sites is an effective tool for [[search engine optimization]] and [[social media optimization]] for [[webmaster]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://socialbookmarksubmission.org/importance-of-social-bookmarking-in-seo-or-website-marketing-and-promotion/|title=Importance of Social Bookmarking in SEO or Website Marketing and Promotion|publisher=Social Bookmark Submission|access-date=25 May 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120504183805/http://socialbookmarksubmission.org/importance-of-social-bookmarking-in-seo-or-website-marketing-and-promotion/|archive-date=2012-05-04|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[Enterprise bookmarking]] is a method of tagging and linking any information using an expanded set of tags to capture knowledge about data. It collects and indexes these tags in a web-infrastructure server residing behind the firewall. Users can share knowledge tags with specified people or groups, shared only inside specific networks, typically within an organization.

=== Social viewing ===
{{Main|Social viewing}}
[[Social viewing]] allows multiple users to aggregate from multiple sources and view online videos together in a synchronized viewing experience.

=== Social cataloging ===
{{Main|Social cataloging application}}
In [[Social cataloging application|social cataloging]] much like social bookmarking, this software is aimed towards academics. It allows the user to post a citation for an article found on the internet or a website, online database like Academic Search Premier or LexisNexis Academic University, a book found in a library catalog and so on. These citations can be organized into predefined categories, or a new category defined by the user through the use of [[Tag (metadata)|tags]]. This method allows academics researching or interested in similar areas to connect and share resources.

=== Social libraries ===
This application allows visitors to keep track of their collectibles, books, records and DVDs. Users can share their collections. Recommendations can be generated based on user ratings, using statistical computation and [[network theory]]. Some sites offer a buddy system, as well as virtual "check outs" of items for borrowing among friends. [[Folksonomy]] or [[tag (metadata)|tagging]] is implemented on most of these sites.

=== Social online storage ===
Social online storage applications allow their users to collaboratively create file archives containing files of any type. Files can either be edited online or from a local computer, which has access to the storage system. Such systems can be built upon existing server infrastructure or leverage idle resources by applying [[Peer-to-peer|P2P]] technology. Such systems are social because they allow public file distribution and direct [[file sharing]] with friends.

=== Social network analysis ===
[[Social network analysis software|Social network analysis tools]] analyze the data connection graphs within social networks, and information flow across those networks, to identify groups (such as cliques or key influencers) and trends. They fall into two categories: professional research tools, such as [[Mathematica]], used by social scientists and statisticians, and consumer tools, such as [[Wolfram Alpha]],<ref>{{cite web|url = https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19699776 |title = Facebook friends mapped by Wolfram Alpha app|work =  BBC News|date = 24 September 2012}}</ref><ref>[https://techcrunch.com/2012/08/30/wolfram-alpha-launches-personal-analytics-reports-for-facebook/ Wolfram Alpha Launches Personal Analytics Reports For Facebook] Tech Crunch</ref> which emphasize ease-of-use.

=== Virtual worlds ===
{{main|Virtual world}}
Virtual Worlds are services where it is possible to meet and interact with other people in a virtual environment reminiscent of the real world. Thus, the term [[virtual reality]]. Typically, the user manipulates an [[Avatar (computing)|avatar]] through the world, interacting with others using [[online chat|chat]] or [[voice chat]].

==== Massively multiplayer online games ====
{{main|Massively multiplayer online game}}
MMOGs are virtual worlds (also known as virtual environments) that add various sorts of point systems, levels, competition and winners and losers to virtual world simulation. Massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) are a combination of [[role-playing video game]]s and [[massively multiplayer online game]]s

==== Non-game worlds ====
Another development are the worlds that are less game-like or not [[game]]s at all. Games have points, winners and losers. Instead, some virtual worlds are more like social networking services like [[Myspace|MySpace]] and [[Facebook]], but with 3D simulation features.

==== Economies ====
{{Main|Virtual economy}}
Very often a real economy emerges in these worlds, extending the non-physical [[service economy]] within the world to service providers in the real world. Experts can design dresses or hairstyles for characters, go on routine missions for them and so on, and be paid in game money to do so. This emergence has resulted in expanding social possibility and also in increased incentives to cheat. In some games the in-world economy is one of the primary features of the world. Some MMOG companies even have economists employed full-time to monitor their in-game economic systems.

=== Other specialized social applications ===
There are many other applications with social software characteristics that facilitate human connection and collaboration in specific contexts. [[Social Project Management]] and [[e-learning]] applications are among these.