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As social networking is becoming more popular, social software has achieved an important position in the internet business industry. For social software to be successful, it is crucial to understand how users form their continuous usage intentions toward social software. This paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing upon socio-technical and social cognitive perspectives, this study proposes a theory-based model that investigates the interaction effects between social (i.e. perceived user base and relationship commitment) and technical (i.e. perceived system quality) factors of social software, in addition to their direct effects on continuous usage intentions. To empirically validate the proposed research model, a structural equation modelling technique was used.

The results of our model test indicate that all relevant social and technical factors are significant determinants of continuous usage intention. Moreover relationship commitment exhibits a positive interaction effect with perceived system quality on continuous usage intention, while perceived user base does not.

Service designers or providers of social software should make an effort to nurture social relationships among users, expand users' social networks, and reinforce users' relationship commitment to their friends.

Given the lack of investigations into socio-technical interactions in prior social software studies, the theoretical perspectives and empirical findings of this study are useful to both academics and practitioners. The findings also raise new implications regarding the various types of interactions (e.g. enhancing or suppressing) between the social and technical factors around social software.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the perceptions of master of library and information science (MLIS) students of social software.

A web‐based questionnaire is used as a survey instrument. The MLIS students at Kuwait University (KU) and the University of Wisconsin‐Milwaukee (UWM) are identified as the population of this study. In total, 132 MLIS students participate in the survey.

The majority of students from the two schools are aware of social software applications and their use. Blogs, video sharing, collaborative authoring, communication and social networking received the highest mean scores. Their perceptions about online activities, their use of social software and the obstacles to its use were not significantly affected by institutional affiliation. It was further found that the institutional affiliation exhibited significant differences for their perceptions of social software applications in education.

The sample issues present one of the main limitations of this study and the bias of the survey method.

The findings of the study can meaningfully contribute to a better understanding of the affect of social software on MLIS students. It also can be applied to the implementation of these applications in library and information science (LIS) education.

Most research on social software concentrates on students from other fields; very little research has considered student in LIS. This research is also the first survey to investigate how MLIS students in Kuwait using social software.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the adoption of social software in public libraries and to explore its impact.

This research uses a qualitative methodology and took the form of open‐ended interview questions using an e‐mail format. The research uses Rogers' diffusion of innovations theory as a framework.

This research found that participants consistently described social software as a means to deliver a library service that truly reflected their users' wants and needs. Participants indicated that social software would help achieve this goal in two ways. Firstly, participants felt that social software enabled users to interact with the library in the ways they wanted to. Secondly, the participative elements of social software made it easier for users to provide feedback on all aspects of the library service. The study also revealed that while social software is not currently being used to its fullest extent in public libraries, public librarians are exploring the meaning and potential of this new technology.

This paper advances the discussion on social software by providing concrete examples of its impact in practice. It is a resource for public librarians considering the potential impact of implementing social software in their own library which will allow them to learn from the experiences of others.

By studying the drivers of social collaboration the purpose of this paper is to describe how, and for what job-related purposes, social software is employed in the digital workplace. Focussing on consultants, who are considered to be part of a knowledge-intensive and innovative industry, factors that may influence the adoption of professional social software are explored. In addition, insights about socio-demographic differences as well as distinct consulting segments and use categories are provided.

The Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technologies (UTAUT) is the theoretical backbone of this research. The UTAUT model is expanded to fit the research goals, and the results from a quantitative study (n=341) are used to test the model.

The results suggest that the adoption of social software is associated with the expectation that one’s work performance will improve. There are significant differences regarding age and gender in the use of social software for job-related purposes.

Using the results of the study, social software suites can be tailored to users’ needs and preferences, which, in turn, may lead to higher levels of acceptance and intensity of use.

Social software is already widely adopted for private purposes, and it is being used more and more within the digital workplace, too. However, little research has been conducted into how, and for what job-related purposes, social software is employed, or into the potential drivers for its adoption. The stakeholders in the research include scholars and practitioners alike.

Social software usage is growing at an exponential rate among the present generation of students. Yet, there is paucity of empirical study to understand the determinant of its use in the present setting of this study. This study, therefore, seeks to investigate factors that predict students' attitudes and intentions to use this internet‐base software.

A survey research was conducted among students of a higher institution of learning. A hypothesized model was developed through technology acceptance theory of Davis, from where hypotheses were postulated for the study. Structural equation modeling was used to ascertain the goodness of fit of the model of the study and to analysis all the hypotheses postulated therein.

The findings of the study revealed that all the independent variables (perceived usefulness, subjective norm, and perceived ease of use) predict the attitude of students toward social software adoption. Similarly, attitude was found to be the stronger predictor of students' intention to use social software. The data of the study fitted the model hypothesized for the study with goodness of fit indices of the model above the acceptable value of 0.90. The invariance analysis between the genders was found to be statistically insignificant.

The findings from the present study on students' attitudes to social software usage have made a confirmatory revelation to previous studies that has similar bearing to technology use and adoption. This study revealed that perceived ease of use is the stronger predictor of student attitude to the use of social software than perceived usefulness and subjective norms, while student attitude was stronger in determining intention to use social network site. This finding confirms that of Davis, which asserted that perceived ease of use of a system has an effect on its perceived usefulness and the behavioral intention of the users.

The study is an original work conducted in February 2010.

The purpose of this study is to explore the acceptance and use of social software tools; in particular, the paper focuses on how the features of social software determine its use.

This study identifies and uses three independent variables: intrinsic motivation, communication, and information/knowledge sharing. The dependent variables are based on the technology acceptance model (TAM) and include the perceived usefulness of social software and the perceived easiness of using social software. Using an online survey, data were collected from employees in government agencies (n=116) in Korea.

The results of a regression analysis show that both communication and knowledge sharing have a positive effect on the perceived usefulness of social software. However, the results did not statistically support intrinsic motivation as a crucial factor influencing the usefulness of social software. The findings also indicated that intrinsic motivation and communication are crucial factors in the ease of use of social software, while knowledge sharing is not significant statistically.

There are some limitations in this study that need to be addressed. First, in this study, the subjects in the questionnaire survey were employees in Korean government related agencies. In addition, the survey was conducted by volunteers responding to the questionnaire. Thus, in other circumstances, the findings of this study may not be valid or generalizable due to a different social context and representative sampling.

The study implies that decision makers in software companies should support knowledge sharing activities and a variety of communication channels to transform a government agency into a social software community. In addition, the study shows that social software developers should consider enjoyment as a crucial factor for ease of use. Finally, the study found that the associations between the features of social software and South Korean government employees' characteristics for adopting social software can serve as a starting point for research projects involving government employees in other countries.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of literature on the role of Web 2.0 or social software tools in education.

This paper is a critical and comprehensive review of a range of literature sources (until January 2009) addressing the various issues related to the educator's perspective of pedagogical effectiveness of social software tools.

The paper provides insights about the: educational goals of using social software tools; benefits to the students, educators and institutions; challenges that may influence a social software initiative; and issues that need to be considered in a social software initiative.

It is hoped that the analysis, as captured in this paper, will highlight the different pedagogical roles of social software: communication, nurturing creativity and innovation, and collaborative learning. The paper will be of interest to researchers in the areas of social software and technology‐enabled learning environments, in general. Further, this paper demonstrates how the analysis of academic literature sources has been combined with commentaries and opinions on the web to develop this literature review.

The review has been written from an educator's perspective: the questions and challenges that an educator encounters when considering the use of social software tools for learning and teaching. The analysis of the literature review in this paper is presented as answers to questions, which educators may have about social software initiatives. The findings in this paper may influence learning and teaching strategies in higher and further education – specifically institutions that are considering the use of social software.

The paper presents theoretical underpinnings related to pedagogical role of social software tools. In this paper, the practical issues and challenges for educators and policy makers who are considering the adoption of social software tools in learning and teaching are analysed. The paper consolidates a variety of literature sources from academic publications, recent reports on social software (2007‐2009), and commentaries and views on social software within the social media itself (blogs, wikis, YouTube).

The purpose of this paper is to provide both practice‐oriented researchers and practitioners with detailed insights into the social software goals and implementation strategies for corporate environments. Also, to illustrate the novelty and specificity of corporate social software (CSS) compared to other groupware or knowledge management systems.

The paper is grounded in the ongoing discussion on differences and commonalities of knowledge management and Enterprise 2.0 applications and motivated by the lack of scientific studies on this topic. The authors have therefore made a comprehensive study of social software adoption in corporate environments, performing a cross‐case analysis of 23 enterprises. The study was meant to enable researchers and practitioners to acquire a better understanding and appropriate related explanations of the relatively new phenomenon of CSS appropriation and use.

From the cross‐case analysis, six main goals of CSS adoption were derived and compared with the goals of knowledge management projects and initiatives. While some of the goals set for the introduction of CSS seem to coincide with those resulting from knowledge management studies (e.g. establishing networks of experts), others appear to be novel and specific for CSS (e.g. improving employee‐to‐employee communication).

By investigating 23 different cases (most of these case studies being documented by the authors), this paper presents one of the most comprehensive cross‐case analyses systematically exploring pursued goals and implementation approaches adopted for CSS. The contribution of the study is relevant for both research and practice and it is aimed to contribute to the ongoing scientific debate on social software in knowledge management and information systems research.

The purpose of this study is to reveal the role of individual–social–technology fit in online social network (OSN) value development. The social software features (e.g. communication and interaction), social features (e.g. privacy and trust) and individual features (e.g. sense of belonging and self-disclosure) are considered fitting forms to describe the OSN value. Implications and suggestions are addressed.

The literature review on social software, the social and individual characteristics and the research gap with respect to OSN value is presented. The research arguments are then hypothesized, and research model used to describe the proposed role is examined empirically. The research targeted mobile phone users as the subjects, and the extent of the activities of these users on OSN for both work and studies. A salient investigation explores the moderation effect of gender. The research results are obtained, and the findings are revealed on the basis of 468 social software users.

The significant effect of individual–social–technology fit on OSN value development is presented through the satisfaction of both participation and sharing information, and knowledge about this fit is verified. The interplay of social software, social and individual features contributes significantly to individual–social–technology fit development, implying that OSN value development is not a single issue. OSN value development should be considered concurrently with technological, personal and social issues.

The empirical study confirms that fitness analysis produces a systematic outcome, in which all elements (e.g. social, technology and individual) are required to cooperate with one another to maximize the OSN value. An individual adopts online channels to communicate with others; thus, the benefits may be a multidimensional issue instead of only a single information service issue. They also consider building an equal social relationship to be important, as it enables diverse propositions, maintains acceptable privacy and behaves on faith to enhance the fit of technology features and individual features to value development. The subjects also likely accepted the fact that emotion generation is important for the advantage of fit of technology features and social features, thereby likely benefitting OSN value development.

The OSN does not only add new values to the society but also brings new effects on social development, especially in terms of social cognition from virtual community formation, development and creation. Although existing studies in the literature present the important aspects and antecedents linked significantly to OSN value development, these studies also insufficiently discuss the effect of fit of these facets on OSN value development. This exploratory study mainly aims to propose and examine the individual–social–technology fit model through an empirical investigation. The main argument of the study is that when a positive and healthy virtual society is developed through social software, the individual and social characteristics, as well as the social software features, should be defined with a suitable fit to promote the social networking value.

This paper aims to provide an overview of the published literature and current use of social software by libraries primarily in the UK and USA.

The paper's approach is a literature review and desk research.

Libraries are experimenting considerably in this area and many Web 2.0 applications have been developed by libraries and librarians over the past few years. These tools offer the potential to enhance library services.

The area is one of rapid change, so the findings will date quickly.

An overview of which technologies are being used most widely and might offer the most potential for library staff considering experimenting in this area.

Web 2.0 is an area with which many library staff need to become familiar quickly. This paper provides a useful overview of the topic.