Social computing involves processing information distributed across social groups to support gathering, representing, and disseminating that information. It links information to people who are connected to each other. An example showed how a group organized chapters for a book by physically arranging and rearranging chapter titles. People discussed the arrangements, with awareness focused on nearby discussions. This allowed the group to organize the chapters coherently within 30 minutes through distributed input, even though no single person knew everything. A framework was proposed with levels including identity, awareness, action/interaction and structure, along with mechanisms spanning levels.

1. Social Computing as Social Computation Thomas Erickson Social Computing Group IBM T. J. Watson Research Center Research Directions in Social Computing Workshop Sanibel Island, FL, November 4, 2007 Group 2007