A Unifying Framework for Building Social Computing Applications

  • Authors:
  • Renato A. Capuruço;Luiz F. Capretz

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A 5B9;Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A 5B9

  • Venue:
  • WSKS '08 Proceedings of the 1st world summit on The Knowledge Society: Emerging Technologies and Information Systems for the Knowledge Society
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

There have been a number of frameworks and models developed to support different aspects of social computing. Some were developed to deal with online interaction through the application of computer-mediated communications tools, whereas others such as social network analyses and reputation systems were more specific in their focus. While these methodologies are inter-related, current social computing research has dealt with them as separate aspects. This paper presents a comprehensive framework for social computing that aims at integrating all these three aspects into a unified model so that discovery and exploration of community members are not only made possible, but also optimized. The novelty of the proposed approach stems from: (1) integration of social interaction, social network analysis and social reputation domains; (2) incorporating many flexible and practical features such as individual- and group-level perceptions of trust in social relations for different social contexts; and (3) using path-related algorithms for selection and discovery of target community members. A description of the proposed model and its implementation are presented. This research is expected to assist online community members to make decisions that facilitate the discovery of people and their connections while promoting increased awareness of community structure and information exposure.