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The Social Machine: Designs for Living Online
New ways to design spaces for online interaction—and how they will change society.
Computers were first conceived as “thinking machines,” but in the twenty-first century they have become social machines, online places where people meet friends, play games, and collaborate on projects. In this book, Judith Donath argues persuasively that for social media to become truly sociable media, we must design interfaces that reflect how we understand and respond to the social world. People and their actions are still harder to perceive online than face to interfaces are clunky, and we have less sense of other people's character and intentions, where they congregate, and what they do.
Donath presents new approaches to creating interfaces for social interaction. She addresses such topics as visualizing social landscapes, conversations, and networks; depicting identity with knowledge markers and interaction history; delineating public and private space; and bringing the online world's open sociability into the physical world. Donath asks fundamental questions about how we want to live online and offers thought-provoking designs that explore radically new ways of interacting and communicating.
Computers were first conceived as “thinking machines,” but in the twenty-first century they have become social machines, online places where people meet friends, play games, and collaborate on projects. In this book, Judith Donath argues persuasively that for social media to become truly sociable media, we must design interfaces that reflect how we understand and respond to the social world. People and their actions are still harder to perceive online than face to interfaces are clunky, and we have less sense of other people's character and intentions, where they congregate, and what they do.
Donath presents new approaches to creating interfaces for social interaction. She addresses such topics as visualizing social landscapes, conversations, and networks; depicting identity with knowledge markers and interaction history; delineating public and private space; and bringing the online world's open sociability into the physical world. Donath asks fundamental questions about how we want to live online and offers thought-provoking designs that explore radically new ways of interacting and communicating.
433 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 23, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 7, 2014
This is a beautiful, intellectual book about living life online. It is aesthetically stunning in layout and design, containing elegant pictures, quotes and supporting material. Although this book was written by an academic, it is totally accessible to the layperson. As an internet scholar I was familiar with many of Donath's ideas, but also learned about research that was previously unknown to me. Most of Donath's ideas about online social interaction were framed in a way that gave me a different perspective of online community, and overall computer-mediated communication. Donath presents her ideas elegantly, always backing them up when needed with scholarly research and theory. I had to check the price of this book on Amazon- I was shocked to see that the hard cover copy can be purchased for $35.00. I expected it to be closer to the $200 range of similar texts books- although this is not a text book, it could be used in most any course that looks at "living life online". It is not often that I find an academic book so engaging.
December 5, 2014
Social media has become an important part of countless people’s lives; and for many organisations, it is an important way to engage with their users and clients, due to the benefits that come with the additional interaction and collaboration that are part of this new means of communication.
This book is a comprehensive study of social media and how it has grown in importance to our modern society. It is an exceptionally thorough examination of the many aspects of online interaction, walking the reader through many of the different types of products and highlighting how these have developed.
Amongst other topics, it covers the sociological issues, design concepts, principles of security and privacy, uses of game and role playing; and it also tackles a number of the concerns relating to the ethical use of the newer technology.
In addition, it compares and contrasts the development of older communications media to the growth of the internet as a new form of information transmission technology, providing some highly useful appraisals of the various types of products and their attraction to businesses as well as the consumer.
Part of the book is devoted to the various methods of analysing the different types of interaction. It introduces some interesting and informative techniques that could be of tremendous value to organisations that need to understand more about the effectiveness of their strategies; and the book discusses a number of ways to analyse the data and how to present it in a visual format that produces some fascinating and quite attractive results.
There are parts of the book that might indicate it was part of a doctoral thesis; however, it is still extremely readable. Although there is a significant amount of technical information, it is clearly written so that the points made can easily be followed by someone that is relatively new to this field.
I found it to be a truly engaging and enjoyable read; with a lot of highly valuable information, presented in such a way as to invite the reader to question some of their prior assumptions.
Due to its size, it might be seen as slightly intimidating; but overall, it is a work of considerable value and importance. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is responsible for the development or management of a social media strategy, in any size of organisation.
Reviewed by A P Sutcliffe PG Dip CCI, MBCS
This book is a comprehensive study of social media and how it has grown in importance to our modern society. It is an exceptionally thorough examination of the many aspects of online interaction, walking the reader through many of the different types of products and highlighting how these have developed.
Amongst other topics, it covers the sociological issues, design concepts, principles of security and privacy, uses of game and role playing; and it also tackles a number of the concerns relating to the ethical use of the newer technology.
In addition, it compares and contrasts the development of older communications media to the growth of the internet as a new form of information transmission technology, providing some highly useful appraisals of the various types of products and their attraction to businesses as well as the consumer.
Part of the book is devoted to the various methods of analysing the different types of interaction. It introduces some interesting and informative techniques that could be of tremendous value to organisations that need to understand more about the effectiveness of their strategies; and the book discusses a number of ways to analyse the data and how to present it in a visual format that produces some fascinating and quite attractive results.
There are parts of the book that might indicate it was part of a doctoral thesis; however, it is still extremely readable. Although there is a significant amount of technical information, it is clearly written so that the points made can easily be followed by someone that is relatively new to this field.
I found it to be a truly engaging and enjoyable read; with a lot of highly valuable information, presented in such a way as to invite the reader to question some of their prior assumptions.
Due to its size, it might be seen as slightly intimidating; but overall, it is a work of considerable value and importance. I would highly recommend this book to anyone that is responsible for the development or management of a social media strategy, in any size of organisation.
Reviewed by A P Sutcliffe PG Dip CCI, MBCS
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews