Proactive Connections Benjamin N. Waber Signals, Truth, and Design Fall 2007

LinkedIn Somewhat proactive Links are explicitly signaled Introductions explicitly requested Large time investment

Serendipity Bluetooth

Recognizing Relationships RFID Badges Mobile Phones, PDAs Sociometric Badges

Augmented Social Reality (ASR) Sensors detect f2f relationships Profiles and mined information yields expertise/interests Give people information on how to help their friends Let the community choose social structure

ASR Usage Why? People don’t know who they should be talking to or their friends’ needs (Eagle et al. 2004, Lin et al. 2007, McCarthy 2007, …) Other systems don’t take into account social information How? An ASR system alerts intermediaries if it appears useful under SN criteria Sensor data allows suggestions of opportune locations for the introduction Who? Intermediaries (friends) decide whether or not to make an introduction Knowledge Management is a $5 billion dollar a year industry (Eagle et al. 2004) Ching-Yung Lin, Kate Ehrlich, Vicky Griffiths-Fisher. Small Blue: Making Big Blue a Small World with social sensors, expertise search and social network analysis. Sunbelt 2007.

Issues Privacy Vertical Ties Adoption Allow users to edit friend list Privacy modes/zones Vertical Ties Assess relative power from speaking style Downgrade importance Adoption Wearing badges (free iPhone)? Making introductions (prizes)?

Thanks! Questions?

Inefficient Network Bavelas, 1950