在MySpace和Facebook等社交网站成为Web 2.0的新宠之前很久,工程师们就已经开始在Usenet或Newsgroups新闻组上,通过互联网探讨问题并相互帮助。他们经常把文件上传到FTP上,与其他工程师共享。

就像十几岁的年轻人喜欢在MySpace上获取声望、财富和友谊一样,工程师们喜欢在互联网上结识同行并获取同行们的认可。和其他人一样,他们也渴望在能够展示自己才能的地方获得关注。

不过工程师们喜欢访问的网站,通常是由科技公司自己主办的用户社区网站。工程师们在这些网站上更多的是进行 “计算机社交”,而非“网络社交”。

两者的差别暂且不谈,但它们之间的共性却都是让人欲罢不能。对此问题,维基百科的共同创始人Jimmy Wales曾经写道:“维基百科的关键就在于它充满乐趣,让人上瘾。”

更重要的是,它提供了一个可以让人独处、同时又具备社交特性的场所。

在《纽约书评》最近的一篇文章中,Nicholson Baker描述了这样一种现象: “所有互联网行业的卓越成就 —— 例如电子邮件、AOL聊天、Facebook、Gawker、Second Life、YouTube、Daily Kos、魔兽世界等 —— 或多或少都具备一些让人上瘾的因素；它们之所以能够让用户乐此不疲,都是因为具备这种以独处的方式进行社交的特性: 用户不断地登录、不断地查看信息,就好比你试图睡觉时,却想参加楼下举行的热闹聚会一样。”

The MathWorks作为科学计算和基于模型设计的领先软件供应商,见证了在其用户社区中出现的一场巨大变革。 MathWorks用户社区的负责人Ned Gulley提起了过去两年中发生的“巨变” ——Matlab站点的访问人数每年增加一倍。

The MathWorks成立于1984年,从20世纪90年代初就主办了一个名为Matlab Central的用户社区。如Ned Gulley所说,公司“并非从零开始”。 但其FTP站点的文件从最初的几百个已经增长到了7500个。用户每天会向Matlab的文件交换区增加7到8个文件。 公司的新闻组也会不断收到新的问题,提出进行文件交换。

根据The MathWorks公司提供的报告,公司起初建立了一个可容纳100万用户的Matlab计算语言社区,实际每月吸引约400,000名用户。

虽然The MathWorks公司会不断维护自己主办的社区,但正如Gulley说过的一样:“客户为网站带来的资源要远远多于公司本身,从某种角度来说,他们才是网站的主办者。” PicScout公司(一家视觉内容监测供应商)的研发副总裁Yair Altman是个活跃的Matlab用户。他居住在以色列,第一次来到The MathWorks的用户社区时,认为这只是一个在线帮助网站。 之后却很快发现,这个论坛可以提供比预想中更多的东西。

Matlab社区由两部分组成:论坛和文件交换区。Altman认为Matlab论坛对他来说非常重要,因为他在这里能比在Google更快、更有效地搜索到与The MathWorks相关的问题的答案。

Altman说:“如果用户在微软的封闭软件包中发现了一个bug,然后发邮件给它的服务团队,那简直就是遥不可及。而在Matlab社区,用户可与使用The MathWorks的用户直接对话并得到回应。”

这让人上瘾。 即使在Altman忙得不可开交的时候,他每天仍然忍不住要登陆Matlab社区,查看新帖。 他还向Matlab的文件交换区提交过程序。 他说:“在我获得正面评价时,会感到非常地自豪, 而同行们给出的负面评价则会让自己懊恼。我会对自己说,‘这是一个完美的程序! 为什么他们不接受？’”但通常这种经历只会激励他提交更多的修改程序。

通过展示最佳编程法,工程师们找到了一个释放专业自豪感的出口。 而类似于Matlab的社区网站也“为实习工程师们搭建了一个平台”,Gulley说: “一名年轻的工程师通常需要在一位资深工程师的带领下,学习最佳的编程方法。”

“类似于Matlab这样的社区论坛,可以为经验丰富的工程师们提供一个平台,结识‘新工程师’,并帮助他们成长,”他补充道。

John D'Errico是一名Matlab用户,他在Kodak公司做了29年的数学家,2年半前退休。 D'Errico非常熟悉Matlab,但在退休前总是缺少时间和精力参与到其中。

现在他有了自己的时间,每天清晨4:30起床,之后至少从Matlab的文件交换区上下载一个文件。 D'Errico是评论组中的一员,他翻来覆去地研究那些程序文件,查找错误,确定它是否符合标准。 然后写一份详细的评论文章,发布在文件交换区上。 D'Errico被看作是Matlab社区中最有魅力的导师之一。

“在我开始做出长篇的、实质性和建设性的评论前,Matlab社区上的大多数评论都只是三言两语,没有任何建设性意义。 之后,我看到其他一些人也开始为此付诸努力。 有人做出建设性工作、为其他人提供反馈时,就可以提高所有来访者的水平。”

D'Errico补充道:“提供指导有多种方式: 回答问题、为所提交的代码提供评论是最常见的两种方式。 第三种就是提交自己的代码。 通过这种方式,可以让其他人看到自己的作品,有时还会仿效你的作品。 ”

“我们从在外部世界中看到的以及自己的错误中汲取经验。 如果自身的知识和经验仅来源于随机的错误和成功,会让自己花费很长的时间才能取得进步。”

Gulley表示,对于社交网站,绝不要低估“人们对做出贡献的需要” 。 人们希望贡献自己的知识与经验,获得别人的欣赏和尊重。这也是维基百科之所以能兴盛的原因之一。

在公司里,网络社交会与一些潜在的商业观念产生冲突。 D'Errico说,在他将代码提交到Matlab社区的文件交换区之前,如果想钻公司的空子,Kodak是不会让他轻易成功的。 他说,这种努力“不是一般地麻烦。”

D'Errico说,如果哪个员工想写些新程序,首先一个问题就是: “我们是不是应该对此拥有专利？”

PicScout公司的Altman并不把专利问题看作是涉足Matlab的一种阻碍,在很大程度上是由于别人所提交的代码“与自己所做的工作并没有任何直接关系。” D'Ericco对此保持乐观态度。 随着年轻一代网络社交爱好者进入工程师圈子,公司对于专利问题的担忧也许会有所降低。 “仅仅需要一小部分人”就可以彻底改变局面,D'Ericco说道,“各家公司都会鼓励员工更频繁地公开他们的代码,与外部世界分享资料。”

如果计算机社交已经在工程师的圈子中过时,那如何解释最近在用户社区中出现的流量猛增现象？ 无需再左顾右盼,看看近几年来消费者在线购买行为的变化就足以说明问题。Gulley说: “如果今天你想买一个数字便携摄像机,毫无疑问,你一定知道应该去哪一个网站。 那一定是一个你非常信任的网站,你可以在其上比较型号和价格,并最终购买一个理想中的机型 。消费者们知道,他们不需要去怜悯销售商。”

这与工程领域相似。 如果一名工程师被要求开发新软件,他并不需要重新温习大学课本并开始重新书写代码,而是会想到,“在某个地方一定有类似的程序。 我并不需要重新开始,”Gulley解释说道。

正如在Matlab社区中常见的问题,经常会有人质问: “你是想要我们来帮你完成工作么？”简而言之,论坛也有它自身的礼节。 “你不可以简单地说,‘请完成以下工作’,然后期望别人把东西喂给你,”Gulley说。

Matlab社区是一种“网络社交”吗？ Gulley认为它更像是一种“计算机社交”,不过用户的体验正在使两者之间的界线逐渐模糊。

D'Errico说道:“有些人我会经常和他们沟通,和他们一起我会觉得很开心,我愿意把这些人称为‘朋友’。在论坛上帮助过许多人后,我也会收到类似这样的信息,‘如果你到城里来,我愿意请你喝啤酒。’”。 可惜的是,D'Errico很少有机会再出差,自然也没有机会喝到这样的啤酒。

翻页查看英文原文:

Long before social networks such as MySpace and Facebook became the darlings of Web 2.0, engineers were active in Usenet or Newsgroups, asking questions and helping one another via the Internet. They routinely uploaded files on FTP sites to share with engineers.

Just as teenagers crave fame, fortune and friendship on MySpace, engineers also seek recognition and camaraderie among their peers on the Internet. Like anyone, they long for an audience where they can strut their stuff.

The preferred Internet hangouts for engineers, though, are user communities, often hosted by technology companies. What they do there may be better described as "social computing" rather than "social networking."

Differences aside, the common denominator of "social computing" and "social networking" is that it's hard to stop. In that vein, Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales once wrote: "The main thing about Wikipedia is that it is fun and addictive."

More importantly, it offers a place to be solitary and yet social.

In a recent article in The New York Review of Books, Nicholson Baker described the phenomenon: "All big Internet successes--e-mail, AOL chat, Facebook, Gawker, Second Life, YouTube, Daily Kos, World of Warcraft--have a more or less addictive component; they hook you because they are solitary ways to be social: you keep checking in, peeking in, as you would to some noisy party going on downstairs in a house while you're trying to sleep."

MathWorks, a leading software provider for technical computing and model-based design, is witnessing a huge surge in activity in its online user communities. Ned Gulley, a leader for MathWork's user community, cited "a sea change" in the last two years, with the number of visitors to the Matlab site doubling on an annual basis.

Founded in 1984, Mathworks has been hosting a user community called Matlab Central since the early 1990's. As Gulley acknowledged, the company "didn't start from zero." But a few hundred files originally on its FTP site have grown to 7,500. Users add seven to eight new files every day to Matlab's file exchange. Its news group receives new questions constantly, prompting threads of exchanges.

Matlab, originally created to house a community of nearly 1 million users of the computing language of the same name, attracts nearly 400,000 users a month, according to the company.

While MathWorks maintains its storefront, it is "customers, not the company, hosting the site, who bring materials to the Web site," said Gulley. Yair Altman, vice president of R&D at PicScout, a visual content monitoring provider, is an active Matlab user. Altman, based in Israel, first came to MathWork's user community thinking it was an online help site. He quickly found out that the forum offers much more.

Matlab consists of two components: "Forum and "File exchange." Altman calls Matlab's forum "by far the most important" because he finds answers there to questions related to MathWorks "faster and more useful than Google."

"If you find a bug in Microsoft's closed software package, you send an e-mail to its support team. That's as far as you go." With Matlab, "you get direct dialog and responses from people who have been actually using MathWorks," Altman said.

It's addictive. Even when he's swamped, Altman can't help but look up new posts each day. He also submits programs to Matlab's File exchange. "When I get good reviews, I am quite proud of it," he said. Poor reviews from peers elicit the opposite response. "I say to myself, 'That was a perfect submission! Why don't they get it?'" The exercise only motivates him to submit more revisions.

By showing the best practices for programming, engineers find an outlet for their professional pride. Further, Web sites like Matlab are "building scaffolding for engineering apprenticeship," observed Gulley. A young engineer needs to sit next to a senior person to learn best practices in programming, he said.

Forums like Matlab "can provide a structure for experienced engineers to meet [new engineers] and help them grow," he added.

John D'Errico, a Kodak mathematician for 29 years who retired two and a half years ago, is an Matlab user. D'Errico was very familiar with Matlab, but lacked the time and energy to participate prior to his retirement.

Now he does, rising at 4:30 a.m. and downloading at least one file a day from Matlab's file exchange. A member of its review team, D'Errico tears apart the file, checks for errors and checks to see if it conforms to standards. He then writes a detailed review and posts comments on the file exchange. D'Errico is considered one of Matlab's most engaging mentors.

"Before I started the long, substantial, constructive reviews, most of the reviews [on Matlab] were single sentences, and not constructive. Afterwards, I saw a few others making a bit more of an effort.

"When you have a visible individual who acts constructively, providing feedback to the rest, this can raise the level of all those who visit the area."

D'Errico added, "Mentoring has a variety of forms: answering questions, providing reviews of submitted code are two such forms. A third is submitting one's own code. Here, the rest can see your own work, often emulating what they see.

"We learn by what we see in the outside world as well as from our own mistakes. If our own learning came only from our own random mistakes and successes, it may take a long time to evolve."

As for social networks, never underestimate "human needs to contribute," said Gulley. People want to contribute, to be appreciated and to be respected. How else to explain Wikipedia's boom?

In the corporate world, social networking can clash with the the commercial potential of an idea. D'Errico said Kodak didn't make it easy when he sought corporate clearance before submitting his code to Matlab's file exchange. The effort, he said, "was a pain in the butt."

If an employee wants to write something new, D'Errico, said, the first question is: "Should we patent this first?"

PicScout's Altman doesn't see patent issues as a hindrance to Matlab involvement, largely because code he submits rarely has any "direct relation to the job I do." D'Ericco remains hopeful. Corporate patent anxiety might subside as a generation of young social networkers enter the engineering workforce. It could take "only a few people in a corporation," said D'Ericco, to swing the pendulum. "Corporations could encourage their employees to publish their code and share stuff with the outside world more often."

But if social computing is old hat among engineers, how to explain the recent burst in traffic among user communities? Look no further than the change in consumers' online behavior in the last few years, said Gulley. "If you want to buy a digital camcorder today, without question you already know a Web site you can go to. That's a site you trust, where you can compare models and prices and ultimately even purchase a model you want," he said. "Consumers know they are no longer at the mercy of vendors."

There is a direct parallel to what's happening in engineering. If an engineer is asked to develop a new piece of software, instead of dusting off his college books and starting to write code from scratch, he just thinks, "This has to exist somewhere. I refuse to do it myself," explained Gulley.

As seen in many Matlab threads, a common jab is: "Are you asking us to do your homework?" In short, the forum has a system of etiquette. "You can't just say, 'Please do the following' and expect to get spoon-fed," Gulley said.

Is Matlab considered a "social network"? Gulley believes it's still more like "social computing," but the experiences of many users might be blurring that line in a positive way.

D'Errico said, "There are a couple people with whom I communicate so oftenI feel comfortable calling them 'friends.'" After helping many on the forum, "I do get messages like, 'if you are ever in town, I'll treat you a beer,'" he said. Unfortunately, D'Errico, who no longer travels that often, has yet to sip that first beer.