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Social architecture


Social architecture is the conscious design of an environment that encourages a desired range of social behaviors leading towards some goal or set of goals. The environment social architecture influences may be social systems, or digital spaces such as media tools (sometimes synonymous with Web 2.0) and UX strategy. In building design it can refer to the architecture of social spaces such as bars and restaurant.

In social systems, "social architects" seek to modify human behaviors (behavior change) through carefully designed programs or workshops that seek to involve the members of a population to improve, for example, the livability and safety or environmental impact of their own communities.

In digital spaces, "social architecture" is sometimes confused with "information architecture" or "interaction design".

The theory of social architecture can be applied to solve talent attraction and retention issues, while simultaneously combating a community's social issues. The Milwaukee-based firm, NEWaukee is the first social architecture firm in the United States.

In September 2011 Pieter Hintjens presented "Social Architecture 101" at Mix-IT in Lyon. Hintjens defined the term like this: "Social Architecture by analogy with conventional architecture, is the process, and the product, of planning, designing, and growing an online community."

Hintjens' 2016 book, "Social Architecture" provides a theoretical framework and a set of tools for building on-line communities, including a contribution process for open source software communities. The book refers to the ZeroMQ community as an example built using these tools and process.

Amy Jo Kim is an American author and researcher on the subject of developing online communities. On Kevin Werbach interview on Amy Jo Kim. Kevin states that "Amy Jo Kim is an expert in the development of social architectures."

Social Architecture is different from interaction design and information architecture. Rather, it can be illustrated with the combination of two. Specifically, the idea is to use structural (e.g : software, organizational rule) tools to design a socio-technical infrastructure for participants to behave in wanted direction of the designer. It can be used as a conceptual framework for directing building an real-world community of which member communication is mostly taking off online. Social architecture aims for creating an effective infrastructure for non-face-to-face communication and management.


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