Editing Social computing (section)

== Current research ==
Since 2007, research in social computing has become more popular for researchers and professionals in multiple fields dealing with technology, business and politics. A study performed by affiliates of [[Washington State University]] used a [[Latent semantic analysis]] on academic papers containing the term "social computing" to find that topics in social computing converge into the three major themes of Knowledge Discovery, Knowledge Sharing and Content Management.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Li|first1=Yibai|last2=Joshi|first2=K.D.|date=July 29, 2012|title=The State of Social Computing Research: A Literature Review and Synthesis using the Latent Semantic Analysis Approach|journal=Association for Information Systems Electronic Library}}</ref> Social computing continues to shift the direction of research in Information Sciences as a whole, extending social aspects into technological and corporate domains. Companies and industries such as Google, Cisco and Fox have invested in such endeavors. Possible questions to be answered through social computing research include how to form stable communities, how these communities evolve, how knowledge is created and processed, how people are motivated to participate, etc.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Parameswaran|first1=Manoj|last2=Whinston|first2=Andrew B.|date=June 2007|title=Research Issues in Social Computing|journal=Journal of the Association for Information Sciences|volume=8|issue=6}}</ref>

Currently, research in the areas of social computing is being done by many well known labs owned by [[Microsoft]] and [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]]. The team at Microsoft has taken off with a mission statement of "To research and develop software that contributes to compelling and effective social interactions."<ref>{{Cite web|title = Social Computing - Microsoft Research|url = http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/groups/scg/|website = research.microsoft.com|access-date = 2015-04-23}}</ref>  They take a main focus on user-centered design processes.  They also add rapid prototyping combined with rigorous science to bring forth complete projects and research that can impact the social computing field.  Current projects being worked on by the Microsoft team include Hotmap,<ref>{{Cite journal|url = http://research.microsoft.com/apps/pubs/default.aspx?id=69446|title = Hotmap: Looking at Geographic Attention|date = November 2007|access-date = 2015-04-23|journal = Microsoft Research|last = Fisher|first = Danyel|volume = 13|issue = 6|pages = 1184–91|doi = 10.1109/TVCG.2007.70561|pmid = 17968063| s2cid=9460480 |url-access = subscription}}</ref> SNARF,<ref>{{Cite web|title = SNARF - Microsoft Research|url = http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/snarf/|website = research.microsoft.com|access-date = 2015-04-23}}</ref> Slam,<ref>{{Cite web|title = SLAM - Microsoft Research|url = http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/slam/|website = research.microsoft.com|access-date = 2015-04-23}}</ref> and [[Wallop]].  MIT, however, has a goal of creating software that shapes our cities<ref name="media.mit.edu">{{Cite web|title = Social Computing {{!}} MIT Media Lab|url = https://www.media.mit.edu/research/groups/social-computing|website = www.media.mit.edu|access-date = 2015-04-23}}</ref> and more in depth:<blockquote>"More specifically, (1) we create micro-institutions in physical space, (2) we design social processes that allow others to replicate and evolve those micro-institutions, and (3) we write software that enables those social processes.  We use this process to create more robust, decentralized, human-scale systems in our cities. We are particularly focused on reinventing our current systems for learning, agriculture, and transportation."<ref name="media.mit.edu"/></blockquote>The current research projects at the MIT social computing lab include The Dog Programming Language,<ref>{{Cite web|title = The Dog Programming Language|url = http://www.dog-lang.org/|website = www.dog-lang.org|access-date = 2015-04-23|url-status = dead|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20150429141930/http://www.dog-lang.org/|archive-date = 2015-04-29}}</ref> Wildflower Montessori, and You Are Here.<ref>{{Cite web|title = You Are Here|url = http://youarehere.cc/|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140411064758/http://youarehere.cc/|url-status = usurped|archive-date = April 11, 2014|website = youarehere.cc|access-date = 2015-04-23}}</ref>  A broad overview of what to expect from newly started Wildflower Montessori is as follows:<blockquote>"Wildflower Montessori School is a pilot Lab School and the first in a new network of learning centers. Its aim is to be an experiment in a new learning environment, blurring the boundaries between coffee shops and schools, between home-schooling and institutional schooling, between tactile, multisensory methods and abstract thinking. Wildflower will serve as a research platform to test new ideas in advancing the Montessori Method in the context of modern fluencies, as well as to test how to direct the organic growth of a social system that fosters the growth and connection of such schools."<ref name="media.mit.edu"/></blockquote>