Understanding Social Comfort to Improve Social Tool Adoption

Thomas Vander Wal - InfoCloud Solutions, Inc.24 March 2010

eXtension Webinar

Non-digital Story

Commonwealth Club of California

Understanding Social Software for Mainstream Adoption

“I don’t want to be the company idiot!”

Look to human social interactions

Social Scripts

Rethink how tools map to human needs

What is Trust?

Too many components to trust

Stop using the term trust

Encourage the use of words that describe trust

Respect Comfort

Dependable Valued

Honest

Consistent

BelievableLoved

Treasured

Etcetera...

Social Comfort

3 Parts of Social Comfort

• Social Comfort with People

• Social Comfort with Tools

• Social Comfort with Content

Social Comfort with People

Elements of Social Software

Identity Object

Presence

Collaboration

Actions

Groups

Sharing

ReputationRelationships

Conversation

BuildOrder

Identity Object

Presence

Actions

Sharing

Reputation

Relationship

Conversation

Groups

Collaboration

BuildOrder

Identity Object

Presence

Actions

Sharing

Reputation

Relationship

Conversation

Groups

Collaboration

TraditionalGroupware

Who Are These People?

Paradox of Familiarity

• Familiarity through working together

• Familiarity through reputation

• Hallway familiarity

Building Comfort with People

• Similar interest

• Similar life stories

• Similar experiences

Building Comfort with People

• Sharing experiences

• One’s own experiences

• Saved the family farm

• Cancer survivor

Building Comfort with People

• Empathetic

• Compassion

• Understanding of emotion

• Similar experiences

Consumating’s “Quirkiness Factor”

Transparency

What are things that would erode comfort?

Be clear about issues and list them up front

•“I am one of ‘them’”

•“I am paid staff”

Profiles

Do profiles build bonds?

• Breadth of social possible connections

• Contextual disclosure

• Things in common between people

• Relevance of semi-private disclosure

Social Comfort with Tools

Walled Gardens vs. Open Sharing

Sharepoint default

Lack of comfort with open sharing

Comfortable spaces with permeable walls

Social Reticence of a Click

“How broadly are my activities shared”

“What do others think ‘this’ means”

What do the features and functions of the

tools/service do?

Social Progressions

• Personal

• Ideas shared (sparks)

• Gathering of others with interests (campfire)

• Broader interest gathering (bonfire)

• Honing for broad use and replications (torch)

Social Comfort with Content

100% of content that is potentially sharable

Content Sharing Paradox

When people need to find “others like me”

This is often the trigger eroding fears around

social comfort

The more personal the issue, the more difficult

it is to attain social comfort

Externally Focussed Social Empathy

• Sharing may hurt others

• Not wanting to “rock the boat”

• Whistle blowing concerns

Social Comfort as a Whole

Thank You!

Credit of Other’s Photos

• Commonwealth Club, by Steve Rhodes photo of Lowell Bergman - http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/389255633/sizes/l/

InfoCloud Solutions, Inc. - 2010

URL: http://infocloudsolutions.comE-mail: thomas@infocloudsolutions.comAIM: vanderwalSkype: tjvanderwalTwitter: @vanderwal or @infocloud