User centered social software [Elektronische Ressource] : model and characteristics of a software family for social information management / Vanda Lehel

Vanda Lehel

Sujets

• Informatik

Informations

• Publié par: technische_universitat_munchen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 11
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Fakultät für Informatik
der Technischen Universität München






User-Centered Social Software –
Model and Characteristics of a Software Family
for Social Information Management


Vanda Lehel


Fakultät für Informatik
der Technischen Universität München

Lehrstuhl für Software Engineering
betrieblicher Informationssysteme



User-Centered Social Software –
Model and Characteristics of a Software Family
for Social Information Management


Vanda Lehel




Vollständiger Abdruck der von der Fakultät für Informatik der Technischen Universität München
zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines

Doktors der Naturwissenschaften (Dr. rer. nat.)

genehmigten Dissertation.


Vorsitzender: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Helmut Krcmar

Prüfer der Dissertation: 1. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Florian Matthes

2. Univ.-Prof. Dr. Johann Schlichter




Die Dissertation wurde am 18.04.2007 bei der Technischen Universität München eingereicht und
durch die Fakultät für Informatik am 09.08.2007 angenommen.







Abstract

In recent years, web community platforms that pertain to the emerging class of social software have
gained considerable popularity among lead users on the Web. Social software platforms focus on
supporting information exchange in online social networks by providing services for information
search, publication and sharing, and collaborative classification of personal information in individual
users’ social contexts. Hence, individual users can link together and exchange information with
selected contacts like co-workers, friends or family members by means of social software.
However, functional features and information models of social software platforms reveal
limitations from the individual user’s perspective with regard to managing distributed personal
information, that is, most significantly lack of service integration, flexible metadata management and
cross-platform relation management of personal information.
Within the scope of this thesis, the concept of user-centered social software as an innovative
approach for personal information management support in online social networks is developed. The
basis for this concept is established by the characterization of different kinds of social software and the
extension of personal information management activities to information exchange in online social
networks referred to as social information management.
The user-centered social software model therefore proposes an integrated view on all available
information from the individual user’s perspective and encompasses services for the acquisition of
relevant information, controlled information dissemination to selected contacts and flexible metadata
and semantic information relation management concerning the organization of distributed personal
information.
The characteristics of user-centered social software are further substantiated by means of a
software architecture design and are illustrated on a user interface prototype, termed Social Organizer.










iii
iv





Acknowledgements

This work emerged from my activities as a research assistant at the Chair Software Engineering for
Business Information Systems (Prof. Dr. Florian Matthes) at the Department of Informatics of the
Technische Universität München.
First, I would like to thank my doctoral advisor, Prof. Dr. Florian Matthes, for providing the
opportunity to work on this interesting research topic and his suggestions and advice that greatly
contributed to the success of this work. I would also like to thank my second referee, Prof. Dr. Johann
Schlichter, for valuable suggestions to enhance essential parts of the thesis.
I have enjoyed collaborating with my colleague Sheng Wei and thank him for fruitful discussions
and cooperation within our joint research project.
I would like to thank my father, Dr. Csaba Lehel, for helpful suggestions that greatly helped me
improving this work. I also thank Patrick Hupe for helpful discussions and comments to enhance parts
of this thesis.
I am very grateful to my family and Patrick for their support, constant encouragement and
understanding during my doctoral work.
v vi






Contents

Index of Figures ................................................................................................................................. xi

Index of Tables................................................................................................................................... xiii

Index of Acronyms............................................................................................................................. xv


1. Introduction.................................................................................................................................. 1
1.1. Motivation............................................................................................................................ 1
1.2. Main Contributions of this Thesis........................................................................................ 3
1.3. Thesis Structure ................................................................................................................... 5

2. Personal Information Management.............................................................................................. 7
2.1. Terminology......................................................................................................................... 7
2.1.1. Classification of Information ....................................................................................... 7
2.1.2. Information Objects ..................................................................................................... 10
2.2. Characterization of Personal Information Management ...................................................... 14
2.2.1. Personal Information Management versus Personal Knowledge Management ........... 15
2.2.2. Objectives of Personal Information Management........................................................ 16
2.2.3. Acquisition and Retrieval Strategies of Personal Information..................................... 18
2.2.4. Requirements for Personal Information Management Support.................................... 22
2.3. Supporting Solutions............................................................................................................ 25
2.3.1. Personal Applications................................................................................................... 26
2.3.2. Approaches to Unified PIM Support............................................................................ 29
2.4. Summary.............................................................................................................................. 33

3. Social Software............................................................................................................................ 35
3.1. Social Networks... 35
3.1.1. rk Analysis.............................................................................................. 36
3.1.2. Interpersonal Relationships.......................................................................................... 38
3.1.3. Information Exchange in Social Networks .................................................................. 40
3.2. Characterization of Social Software .................................................................................... 41
3.2.1. Computer-Mediated Communication Services ............................................................ 44
vii CONTENTS
3.2.2. Weblogs ....................................................................................................................... 47
3.2.3. Wikis ............................................................................................................................ 51
3.2.4. Social Networking Services ......................................................................................... 52
3.2.5. Object-Centered Social Software................................................................................. 54
3.2.6. E-Commerce Platforms................................................................................................ 57
3.3. Social Software Model......................................................................................................... 58
3.3.1. Information Models of Social Software Platforms....................................................... 58
3.3.2. Content Provider Model............................................................................................... 61
3.3.3. Social Software Services.............................................................................................. 62
3.4. Summary.....................................................................................................................