R4: Towards a holistic framework for designing and developing Social Web Applications

Social Web Application (SWA) design and development is a complex process that requires the understanding and coordination of several domains of knowledge. Yet there remain few if any holistic frameworks to manage this process. In this paper we present such a framework, R4. It coordinates and relates the different perspectives that inform the entire SWA design and development process. We base R4 on SWA design and development framework requirements derived from the literature. We formulate and relate four basic perspectives, the User, Culture, Technology and Business spheres and define stages, (Re)Design, Realization and Reformation (RRR), of the entire SWA design and development lifecycle. We then suggest basic SWA design and development guidelines derived from our R4 framework and develop an example methodology based on that framework.

I. Introduction

Social Web Applications (SWAs) have become ubiquitous in the cultural consciousness and daily lives of those of us privileged to be living in the digitalized world. SWAs connect users in online communities [27] who collaborate in creating or sharing social media (e.g. photos in flickr [36] or status updates and urls in twitter [38]). Such applications are now evolving beyond the desktop computing space to platforms like mobile phones and handheld devices (e.g. facebook [35] and twitter [38] have functionality allowing for updates from mobile phones). Soon SWAs will become even more prevalent as they are deployed widely across pervasive computing environments [11].