MediaShift Idea Lab . The Revolution in Social Software is Finally Here | PBS - 0 views
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paul lowe on 05 Dec 08The Revolution in Social Software is Finally Here Rich GordonRich Gordon 1:26 PM | bio | Comments: 3 Social software -- technology that enables interactions among multiple people -- has existed for almost a half century now. (Clay Shirky, in a widely linked essay on this topic, traces the roots of social software to the PLATO system, built at the University of Illinois in the early 1960s.) I'm using the term "social software" because the more popular "social media" increasingly feels like an oxymoron. Sites like Facebook, Twitter and Digg aren't media. Media refers to one-way communication -- like publishing or broadcasting. Today's social sites are, fundamentally, computer programs -- software that determines what users can (and can't) do, and that establishes structures through which people interact.