Aggregator. The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2006 [Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2. Social Media Goes Mainstream [Dion Hinchcliffe's Web 2.0 Bl. Social Software Building Blocks / nForm / Customer Insight, Stra. There are lots of definitions of social software out there, ranging from the clinical (“software that enables people to connect through computer-mediated communication”) to the pragmatic (“stuff that gets spammed”).
While doing research for a recent workshop, I came across a useful list of seven social software elements. These seven building blocks–identity, presence, relationships, conversations, groups, reputation and sharing–provide a good functional definition for social software. They’re also a solid foundation for thinking about how social software works. The original list was assembled by Matt Webb (who was expanding on a list created by Stewart Butterfield). Here’s a brief definition of each element: