leveraging social networking services to encourage interaction in public spaces
The breakthrough of web 2.0 and sudden uprising of hundreds of different social networking sites have modified the way we communicate and share our experiences and lives with other people. Despite the undeniable networking advantages this digital world offers, it cannot be seen as purely positive development. Due to a prospering online "hang around" culture, we have lost genuine rich human social experiences to some degree. This paper proposes how to utilize the digital identities and content people have created within these services to improve and encourage natural communication and lower the social barrier of natural interaction in public settings. We propose a system that combines the content in the virtual world with the presence in real world settings. SocS (Social Surroundings) brings out digital information and media content of users to the current physical space, thus attempting to make individuals more approachable by other participants. The requirements, design principles and design of the proposed application are presented. We also discuss the usage and current state of social networking sites as a motivator for new genre of intelligent services.
social networking public spaces ubiquitous computing mobile application