Socially-Augmented Software: Empowering Software Operation Through Social Contacts

It is commonly agreed that a network of contacts can be an invaluable resource for an individual to obtain information and carry out certain tasks. However, this is still unexploited by software (i.e., contacts are not engaged when software acts to achieve the requirements of a user). Till recently, contacts and social relationships were hard to capture and manage by software and, thus, it was infeasible to use them to empower the operation of software. The emergence of social networks made it possible to realise a new kind of software mediated social relationships which would enable what we call "socially-augmented operation". In this position paper, we propose socially-augmented software, which can benefit from network of contacts of users including individuals and organizations to fulfil their requirements. We articulate our view and discuss fundamental concepts of this new paradigm. A set of research challenges to better enable socially-augmented operations in software development will be also presented in the discussion.