Social and collaborative computing (social computing for short) is the study of technology-mediated human social interaction, encompassing all social activity from interpersonal relationships, teams, communities, institutions, to society at large. It examines:
Our interactions with other humans today are increasingly becoming mediated through technology, a trend that this pandemic has only exacerbated. Meanwhile, a plethora of computational systems have been introduced in the last several decades that have us interacting with each other in different ways. Sometimes the outcome is good for people and society, leading to serendipitous exchange, collaborative learning, civic engagement, large-scale open and public projects, creative cultural production, and the strengthening of social bonds and support networks. However, we are now more and more attuned to the negative ramifications of these systems, including rampant harassment, polarization and strife, surveillance and loss of rights, trolling and grifting, information overload, misinformation, and the spread of hate.
As designers and builders of social computing systems, can we imagine a better future? How do we know whether our imagined designs will encourage pro-social outcomes, and how do we guard against harmful negative consequences? How do we know whether a system will be effective or even adopted in the first place?
In this seminar course, students will gain a broad understanding of the current research landscape in social computing, focusing on a system perspective to examine and imagine system designs to address pressing issues. We will read and discuss papers weekly covering different subareas of social computing, foundational papers in the field, and different methods in social computing. Finally, all students individually or in groups will conduct a research project on building, evaluating, or theorizing about a new social computing design.