There appears to be a complete dearth of explicitly social spaces in Ur. By explicitly social space, I mean a location where a primary purposes for being there is to engage in social interaction. I'm talking bars, parks, coffee shops, pool halls, libraries, cafeterias.
Notice I'm not saying the world lacks social activity, far from it. As a new player, though, I found it somewhat difficult to break into that social interaction. Either people were chatting away like old pals, in which case it felt rude to just jump into the conversation, or else people were absorbed with their task and completely ignored any social overtours. (exception, there were a small number of people who reached out to me, as a noob i guess, and were very kind indeed)
I know the Groups occupy that social niche somewhat. They do, after all, have a significant bonus in being able to connect no matter where in Ur a glitch is glitching. But there is just some sort of je ne sais quoi about chatting with someone while at the same in-game location, am I right? You get to see the (likely expanding array of) facial gestures. You can watch the chat bubbles instead of the side bar. You can conga!!!
By entering a social space, a glitch communicates that she desires social interaction, so it's easy for others to strike up a conversation with her. Broadcasting one's availability for communication would also foster collaboration. "You have a butterfly milker?! Omg, I haaate milking butterflies. I will totes give you 5 earthshakers for every load of butterfly milk you give me." Or, "Crap, I still need 15 more green elements to make that extreme shrine powder, you got any man? I'll prime a shrine for you if you do."
I'm sure I'm not the first to have this thought, SO... ideas for types of explicitly social spaces? Besides the obvious coffee shop or bar, off the top of my head I'm thinking: neighborhood clubhouse/pool/playground (omg swings!!!); community kitchen (it gets lonely fixing lemburgers); dog park (surely we'll get pets eventually)...