[Sigia-l] "Social Interface"

[Boniface Lau]

> From: Eric Scheid
>
> >> Joel is using the term "social interface" as an abbreviation of
> >> "interface for a software mediated social environment" [1],
>
[... Quotes from Joel's article ...]
>
> Seems fair to say he's talking about the HCI of software which
> mediates between people who wish to interact on a social basis (ie.
> person to person).

Yes, he was talking about the interface for software that mediates
between people. But he was NOT talking about the "interface for a
software mediated social environment".

"Software that mediates between people" is not a "software mediated
social environment".


[...]
>  
> > That includes the good old multi-user operating systems such as
> > Unix. By managing a shared file system and allowing users to
> > exchange email, Unix "mediates between people".
> 
> email is already in the list of examples, and I agree that unix
> email falls into that broad category. I wouldn't argue though that
> the larger package of which that one item is a member of would
> therefore also fall into that category.

Well, it depends on the role of that item within the larger package.
While one may argue about email's role within an operating system,
file system is unquestionably at the OS core. As I mentioned in your
above quote, Unix has a shared file system. By managing such file
system, Unix mediates between people. 

Not only does Unix mediate, its mediation is many times more
sophisticated than that of "online classifieds" - which, according to
Joel's article, also mediates between people.

BTW, operating system is not the only example. Database management
system is another prominent type of software that sophisticatedly
mediates between people and existed since the 1960s - long before the
Internet.


Boniface