Title: Socially aware computing constructs

Authors: Andry Rakotonirainy; Patricia Obst; Seng W. Loke

Addresses: Centre for Accident Research Road Safety, CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology, K Block – Kelvin Grove Campus 4059, Australia ' Centre for Accident Research Road Safety, CARRS-Q, Queensland University of Technology, K Block – Kelvin Grove Campus 4059, Australia ' Department of Computer Science and Computer Engineering, Latrobe University, Victoria 3086, Australia

Abstract: Every day we are confronted with social interactions with other people. Our social life is characterised by norms that manifest as attitudinal and behavioural uniformities among people. With greater awareness about our social context, we can interact more efficiently. Any theory or model of human interaction that fails to include social concepts could be suggested to lack a critical element. This paper identifies the construct of social concepts that need to be supported by future context-aware systems from an interdisciplinary perspective. It discusses the limitations of existing context-aware systems to support social psychology theories related to the identification and membership of social groups. We argue that social norms are among the core modelling concepts that future context-aware systems need to capture with the view to support and enhance social interactions. A detailed summary of social psychology theory relevant to social computing is given, followed by a formal definition of the process with each such norm advertised and acquired. The social concepts identified in this paper could be used to simulate agent interactions imbued with social norms or use ICT to facilitate, assist, enhance or understand social interactions. They also could be used in virtual communities modelling where the social awareness of a community as well as the process of joining and exiting a community are important.

Keywords: social computing; socially aware computing; context awareness; social psychology; group identification; group membership; social groups; social norms; modelling; social interactions; social awareness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSHC.2012.053162

International Journal of Social and Humanistic Computing, 2012 Vol.1 No.4, pp.375 - 395

Published online: 04 Sep 2014 *

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