A Call for Position Papers for a workshop on the topic of Mobile Social Software (is that supposed to be in cap-case?) went out a week or so ago, and I’ve been meaning to write a few notes — I’m interested in attending and trying to sort through the various projects that are over low-heat (for lack of USC research support, not interest!) that might fit in well on the topic, at least so I can continue to percolate on the topics.
What am I thinking about?
1. A position paper on Blogjects
2. A position paper on NetMagnet
3. A position paper on the Social Meteorology game/concept
Abstract
Given recent hardware, platform development, and internet connectivity gains, mobile devices are quickly becoming key outlets for social software. Bringing social software into the physical social world raises a number of critical research questions, including issues of changes to the ways people socialize, the potentially sweeping impact of location services, how physical world context should be captured and incorporated, and a host of privacy concerns. This workshop seeks to address these and other key issues around the proliferation of social software on mobile devices. Additionally, the workshop focuses on research tools and approaches for studying these questions, projected future directions for social software on mobile devices, and the role of related technologies, such as hardware and communication protocols.
Topics of interest include, but aren’t limited to:
* Context sharing: Under what conditions are people unwilling to share context information (e.g. location, history, etc); how do factors such as privacy, reciprocity, and trust play into that?
* Incentive structures in mixed digital-physical systems
* Reputation systems in mixed digital-physical systems
* Who can, should, and will control location data?
* Capturing and visualizing time: When was I there? When were you there? When were we there together? When will I/you/we be there?
* Role of mobile social software in supporting or detracting from face-to-face interactions
* Incorporating social networks in areas like:
o Mobile dating systems
o Conferences and special events
o Ad-hoc meetings
o Avoidance services
o Recommending people, places, and services
* Media sharing and the particular relationship between mobile photography and social behavior
* Social software to support an aging population
* Mobile social gaming and other forms of entertainment
* Moblogging and flash mobs
* Research/evaluation methods and tools for mobile social software, e.g. evaluation tools for studies in context
* Applications of mobile social software (design/evaluation):
* Hardware and new sensing technologies to support sociability