According to Wikipedia, ‘‘Social software . . . is normally defined as a range of Web-based software programs. The software allows users to interact and share data with other users’’ (Social Software, 2008).

The costs of all kinds of group activity—sharing, cooperation, and collective action—have fallen so far so fast that activities previously hidden beneath that floor are now coming to light. We didn’t notice how many things were under that floor because, prior to the current era, the alternative to institutional action was usually no action. Social tools provide a third alternative: action by loosely structured groups, operating without managerial direction and outside the profit motive. (p. 47)