<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div>Good question, but does a social machine such as Wikipedia have a halting condition (unless we say the final state [which would never be achieved] is to document ask knowledge)?</div><div><br></div><div>Ramine</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:75%;color:#575757">Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note</div></div><br><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Leslie Carr <lac@ecs.soton.ac.uk> <br>Date: 29/10/2013 10:54 (GMT+00:00) <br>To: "tinati r. (rt506)" <rt506@ecs.soton.ac.uk> <br>Cc: Hugh Glaser <hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk>,Kieron O'Hara <kmo@ecs.soton.ac.uk>,sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk <br>Subject: Re: [Sociam-soton] Re: Is email a social machine? <br> <br><br>Does a mailing list have a halting condition? Can it ever finish its task?<br><br>Sent from my iPhone<br><br>On 29 Oct 2013, at 10:50, "rt506" <rt506@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:rt506@ecs.soton.ac.uk>> wrote:<br><br>I agrees with Les, however, if we talk about having an agenda/purpose, would a mailing list with a specific purpose be a social machine where email is one if the tools within the social machinery network?<br><br>Ramine<br><br><br>Sent from Samsung Galaxy Note<br><br><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Hugh Glaser <hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:hg@ecs.soton.ac.uk>><br>Date: 29/10/2013 10:35 (GMT+00:00)<br>To: Kieron O'Hara <kmo@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:kmo@ecs.soton.ac.uk>><br>Cc: sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk><br>Subject: [Sociam-soton] Re: Is email a social machine?<br><br><br>Agreed.<br>Is a crowbar a machine?<br>Is steam power a machine?<br>They might be loosely referred to as such in use, but to people studying statics and dynamics and dynamics they aren't.<br><br>Hugh<br>023 8061 5652<br><br>On 29 Oct 2013, at 10:27, "Kieron O'Hara" <kmo@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:kmo@ecs.soton.ac.uk>> wrote:<br><br>> Hi Wendy,<br>><br>> I'm definitely with your initial reaction. We define a machine in<br>> general as something that does work to achieve a goal. A Turing machine<br>> has a set of final states. I don't see email as having anything like<br>> that kind of teleological goal-directedness, except at a very abstract<br>> level like it allows people to communicate with people.<br>><br>> To me it's much more like a component tool or platform. The point of<br>> social machines, it seems to me, is that whatever else they are, they<br>> are characterised by people getting together to do something. Email is<br>> something you would use for that in many circumstances, but it is not<br>> itself characterised by that. It's on the level of a mobile phone<br>> network, a railway system, or a social networking site, in my view. Once<br>> it starts to be used to achieve some kind of goal, then it becomes a<br>> component of a social machine.<br>><br>> Is my view.<br>><br>> Kieron<br>><br>><br>> On 29/10/2013 10:10, Wendy Hall wrote:<br>>> Hi<br>>><br>>> I'm at dinner in Melbourne and the question has arisen - is email a social machine?<br>>><br>>> My initial reaction was no, because email is not of the Web. But there are people here who are persuading me otherwise<br>>><br>>> Thoughts?<br>>><br>>> Wendy<br>>><br>>> PS Apologies if this question is already answered in the SM classification work but I don't have all the information to hand<br>>><br>>> Sent from my iPhone<br>>> _______________________________________________<br>>> Sociam-soton mailing list<br>>> Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk><br>>> http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/sociam-soton<br>><br>> _______________________________________________<br>> Sociam-soton mailing list<br>> Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk><br>> http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/sociam-soton<br><br>_______________________________________________<br>Sociam-soton mailing list<br>Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk><br>http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/sociam-soton<br>_______________________________________________<br>Sociam-soton mailing list<br>Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk<mailto:Sociam-soton@ecs.soton.ac.uk><br>http://mailman.ecs.soton.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/sociam-soton<br></body>