Our team has been considering some issues at present on some of the complications of social interaction in our application. Thankfully we’re in a position to be asking these questions compared to some of our commercial counterparts who, I would hazard a guess, stop at the questions and release public betas regardless of consequence. To be fair, it’s not always easy to foresee issues, particularly when something has never been done before, and particularly when that never-been-done-before something takes off overnight and then you’re dealing with 67 million users (Facebook).
However, the mistakes that others have made through this model are also serving as a great example from us to learn from, so I suppose I owe my thanks. The mistakes I mention here are those of privacy and distinction, and these are incredibly important to our team, particularly when the academic social world holds intellectual property and tenure in high regard.
What exactly are the complications in the public sphere that we can learn from? Automated public profile information and opt-out features aren’t always clear (“oops – my entire personal interest list is on the front page of Google”), actions aren’t always private (“Jane hugged Sam” is being read by Jane’s ex), and strangers, friends, parents, and coworkers are all reading the same thing. In fact, issues such as these have been recognized enough to inspire an entire blog dedicated to the subject: “Practising a Proper Social Demeanor….New Rules for Surviving the digitally connected world.” While mostly dedicated to Facebook etiquette, it reveals some interesting challenges online socialites have to deal with that weren’t otherwise problems in the ‘real’ world.
We don’t want to entirely discount the incredible benefits that social networking has either, which for us are things like being introduced globally to people who study in your field, sharing reading lists to extend your knowledge base, or participating in open debates to improve your focus. The advantages can outweigh the disadvantages as long as we respect the professional and social sensitive needs of our audience, instead of making general assumptions and letting users fend for themselves as our predecessors have.