Social Computing vs Actual Socializing

I saw a very interesting comment on the responses to the blog Thinking Beyond Web 2.0

"Social computing seem inversely proportional to actually socializing. You know, in real life. If only it were a positive relationship.

Some examples of web 2.0 having effects outside of the web would be nice. "

Wikipedia defines Social Computing in two ways. The first as supporting any sort of social behavior in or through computational systems, and the second enabling the use of collective intelligence. Very fascinating indeed !

In my opinion, social networks that are predominant on the web initially start off as reflections of the self but end up being second life neighbourhoods. The relationship begins in reality but is fostered in virtuality.

I agree with the user who posted the above comment. It would be great if social computing could help in actual socializing - a reverse of the trend currently witnessed. Social software that will enable people to find others on the web, and foster the relationship in reality.

What is Collective Socializing ?

I have been mulling over the term "collective socializing" for a couple of years. I was introduced to the word collective in younger years of watching Star Trek. The Borg were a collective where members were all linked together sharing knowledge and information.

In subsequent years, "collective intelligence" gained prominence with the success of wikipedia, which itself has a wonderful description of the term here. It is a wonderful self sustaining knowledge base with continuous enrichment. It is remarkable that experts in different domains will volunteer time to create, update and maintain entries in wikipedia. What is more remarkable is that people have grown to trust wikipedia for information.

I have browsed the web for the definition of the term "collective socializing" with no satisfactory answer. Hence, I will define it here -

Collective Socializing is the behaviour observed where people who share the same interests or have similar backgrounds exhibit a greater tendency to congregate at similar locations.

Encouraging collective socializing in the internet era would mean sharing information as to where people are currently gathered and offer this information to motivate others to be part of the gathering or congregation.

With cell phones becoming appendages and location determining hardware and software now prevalent on these phones, the most effective system to date that encourages collective socializing can be realized.