Softer Software Discussion Group

​Software is not soft. We want softer software!

We'll be discussing the latest research and projects which move us closer toward the "oh so soft" software we desire.

​Many of those gathered work in domains under the labels: interactive authoring tools, interactive computational media, software substrates, malleable systems, and local-first software. Much of this work is a continuation of a long tradition going back 40+ years to systems like HyperCard and the Boxer project, pioneered by Andrea diSessa at MIT.

This is a discussion group that is invite only. Please reach out to [email protected] with a brief explanation of why you'd like to join and what you plan to bring to the discussion.

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About Softer Software

​Why is the accepted software paradigm to separate humans into two categories: the programmer and the user?

One reason is that software is still so difficult to modify that even programmers have a hard time, leaving the user completely hopeless!

Users exist in a disempowered and (even more frequently today) often disenfranchised position. Because power structures exist in software just as they do in society, the choice to build and distribute software through apps packaged for the market reinforces and hardens this unfortunate imposition on the user and compounds many of the imbalances we see in society today. Computing is too transformational a medium to relegate to the limited domain of the app.

​We are a coalition of researchers, designers, educators and builders working toward a new paradigm of computing that is more malleable, transparent, and user-empowering. We seek not only to make computing as thoughtfully crafted and as easy to change as it is to use, but to leverage that softness of software to recenter the user as the locus of ownership over their digital lives. This is super fun and very ethical! Imagine all the amazing forms of software when billions more people are able to effect change over their computing medium and build on each others ideas.