Title: The social web of things: enabling the interaction of people and things on social networks

Authors: Bruno Cabral; Cibele Vasconcelos; Cássio V.S. Prazeres

Addresses: Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil ' Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil ' Department of Computer Science, Federal University of Bahia, Salvador, Bahia, Brazil

Abstract: Web applications for social networks with similar objectives are now being used on the web by thousands of people. Concepts such as 'scraps', 'virtual friends', 'communities' and 'groups' are increasingly common among users of these applications. Nowadays, people use social networks as a medium to replicate on the web the kind of social activities they would carry out in the real world. However, in real life, people do not just interact with people, they also interact with refrigerators, microwaves, TVs, cars, cell phones, and the like. But in spite of it all, applications for social networks on the web have yet to successfully reproduce this kind of relationship. And so, this article will present an architecture and prototype for the integration of physical devices through the web of things in a social network, where users and devices interact in a similar fashion to how users interact in social networks.

Keywords: social web of things; interaction; social networks; physical devices; interaction.

DOI: 10.1504/IJWBC.2014.065393

International Journal of Web Based Communities, 2014 Vol.10 No.4, pp.426 - 444

Published online: 31 Oct 2014 *

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