1. ‘Social’ Systems: Designing Digital Systems that Support Social Intelligence Thomas Erikson AI and Society Presented by Rosta Farzan PAWS Group Meeting April 27, 2007

2. Goal Supporting social intelligence in online systems Examines social intelligence in face-to-face behavior Social Proxy A Minimalist visualization of presence and activities of participants in online systems

3. Outline Social intelligence  Social intelligence in the face-to-face world Design of social intelligence in online systems Social Proxies Examples of social proxies  User experience Design principles Discussion

4. Social Intelligence “The ways in which groups of people manage to produce coherent behavior directed towards individual or collective ends” Why do we care about social intelligence? Groups may produce qualitatively better and quicker results than individuals Solution produced collectively is more preferred

5. Social Intelligence in Face-to-Face World A tale of two doors  A door opening to a busy hallway  Solutions A sign which says “open door slowly” Inserting a window in the door  Visibility and Accountability Street crossing

6. Social Intelligence in Online Systems Geographically separated people Design Invoking social norms Making physical and behavioral cues visible in online environments Possibilities  3D virtual environment with avatars  Using videos Significant amount of bandwidth, screen space Not scalable Associated with games Privacy issues

7. Social Proxy Minimalist graphical representation of socially salient aspects of an online interaction

8. Examples of Social Proxies Social Proxy for chat environment Circles represent chat room Dots represent users Active users are close to circle’s hub Timeline represents user’s activity Users leave flat traces when logged on Traces are blipped when users talk Appropriate for synchronous patterns of interaction Appropriate for patterns of activity over time

9. More Examples Lecture proxy Dots represent people Dots are positioned according to how much each person has spoken during the last 3 minutes Lecture Norm No audience interruption An audience member interrupting Many interruption

10. Large Scale Example Task proxy for organization-wide activities  Facilitate performance of tasks that require the coordination of many individuals

11. User Experience Chat proxies Engaging and informative Users making inferences not necessarily correct  Part of life as social beings Easy to learn Ice-breakers  Topic for conversation

12. Design Principles Everyone sees the same thing; no user customization Portray actions, not interpretation Should allow deception Support micro/macro readings Ambiguity is useful: suggest rather than inform Use a third person point of view

13. Discussion