Social Connotations of Space in the Design for Virtual Communities and Social Navigation

Future information systems will be populated information spaces. Users of these systems will be aware of the activities of others, and what information they find useful or not. They will be able to point out and share information easily and even guide each other. These systems therefore will be social spaces. People associate social connotations with various types of spaces. These social connotations raise expectations about appropriate behaviour, privacy, trust, and private or public space in these virtual communities. This chapter discusses the relationship between social navigation and spatial metaphors and how social connotations of spatial metaphors can influence social activities in virtual space. We discuss a number of open issues in virtual communities in general and social navigation in particular, that are related to social connotations. We also present a pilot study that indicates that social connotations are perceived differently in real and virtual spaces.