Thursday, February 13, 2003

Boyd - The Ultimate OODA diagram? Wonderful! 10:34:10 PM    comment []

The science of networks A truly moving "story" of their effect. How important it will be for us to undertsand them more. I think that networks are the subject of our time. For most of us, they are a mystery. After all who talked about them at school. Yet they offer us so much hope - after all they are really the essence of all organization. If we can grow to understand them then we may find a way to have a more human and natural life. 9:23:03 PM    comment []

More on networks Applied network theory. The network is not only the computer. It is also the operating system and the software development environment. Coders will thrive in this environment, but increasingly, so will social connectors and information mappers. Network theory tells us that some of these hubs will outperform others. It doesn't explain why. Perhaps there are general laws that produce favored hubs in any kind of network. But in a knowledge network the hubs are people imbued with a talent, and driven by a passion, for connecting people, information, and components. Software development doesn't yet recognize that professional role, but I predict that it will. [Full story at O'Reilly Network] One of the threads woven through my latest O'Reilly Network column is the notion that the film industry's project-oriented, just-in-time assembly of resources and talent is a leading indicator. "Every business will be like show business," say the authors of a 1995 Inc. Magazine story I quote in the article. What led me to hunt down that article was a conversation with my friend Andy Singleton, a serial entrepeneur whom I've known since he showed up at BYTE's offices one day to tell us about his use of genetic algorithms for financial analysis. Of course, we ran the article. If you visited the rambling historic house where Andy then lived, on Dublin Lake in the shadow of Mount Monadnock, you'd have seen, in the dining room, the rack of motherboards that were the homebrew supercomputer on which Andy ran that GA software. ... [Jon's Radio] 6:25:51 AM    comment []

I am posting this to be sure that I can still find Ross's work later Ecosystem of Networks. My post on Distribution of Choice was a little long winded, so let me sum up: Not all links are created equal Conversational relationships are not scale-free Applying these principles reveals a Network Ecosystem Model that helps us understand the political economy of weblogs Network Size Description Distribution Political Network ~1000s Blogs as mass media Power-law (scale-free) Social Network ~150 Blogging Classic Bell-curve (random) Creative Network ~12 Blogs as dinner conversation Dense (equal) A link to a site you read isnt the same as a link to someone you know through their blog or someone you actively collaborate with.  After reviewing data of work relationships, information flows and knowledge exchanges from hundreds of consulting assignments inside Fortune 2000 organizations Valdis Krebs did not see much evidence of power laws in this data. His data is of confirmed ties [both persons agreed/recognized their mutual interactions/flows/relationships] from a worldwide pool of clients dating back to 1988. Of course he found some people were better connected than others, but the extreme hubs found in power law networks just were not evident. Adapting a famous line from the movie "Blazing Saddles" Valdis concluded: "Power Law? There ain't no stinkin' power law in this data!" This conclusion fits well with Duncan Watts observation that the more you ratchet up the requirements for a link, recognized connections diminish, and the less you see power laws.  Which makes all the noise about Power-laws off target.  I had the pleasure of having a dinner conversation with Clay last night.  Yes, he should start a weblog, but he has his own reasons for not doing so yet, which I'll let him explain for himself.  But studying the structure of the weblog ecosystem does not have to be an anthropological exercise.  Its a wonderful testament to the energy of blogspace that Dave Sifry created a new index to reveal the neglected tail of the Power-law distribution of a Political Network.  But we don't have to screw the Power-law or use statistical techniques to reveal a different distribution.  This approach has tremendous value in allowing new cream to arise to the top.  Both innovations are still attempting to filter the wrong set of data and to generalize all of blogspace.  What matters isnt breaking these laws, but the perspective that weblogs, aside from the Political Network publishing dynamics, are communication tools for group forming in Social Networks and Creative Networks.  Meg asks the right question: what if these tools can expand our capacities?  What if 12 and 150 become averages instead of limits?  Other people are thinking in similar terms from an anthropological perspective as participants.  The Social and Creative Networks are where the new and valuable interpersonal connections are being made. In the coming days I will build upon the Network Ecosystem Model to explain the Distribution of Influence and Distribution of Social Capital.  My head hurts, but this is getting interesting. [Ross Mayfield's Weblog] 6:16:13 AM    comment []