Network Science
Monday: science of the web, ranking.
Wednesday: web 2.0 and beyond, cumulative advantage, information cascades.
Discussion Questions:
Monday
- What are the many things Vannevar Bush anticipated as the future of science and technology? Which of them do we currently have?
- Relate Bush’s Memex to the world wide web.
- Where does web search (like Google) fit in to the discussion in the readings?
- What is O’Reilly’s vision of the global mind?
- What are the challenges of making massive amounts of data accessible to intelligent search?
- How has Internet advertising fundamentally changed advertising?
- What is Singer’s echo chamber and why is it problematic? How could the problems be addressed?
Wednesday
- How is information found: how do you search your social network for experts?
- How is information popularized: what survives, is it the good stuff, and is this good for society?
- How is information distributed: how do you hear about things, which of your friends are more likely to tell you something interesting? Do the majority of interesting news come from your friends or your acquaintances?
Readings and Media:
Monday
- As We May Think (Sections 1,6-8), Vannevar Bush, The Atlantic, July 1945 (Optional: Sections 2-5).
- The Birth of the Global Mind, Tim O’Reilly, Financial Times, September 2011.
Wednesday
- Is Justin Timberlake a Product of Cumulative Advantage?, Duncan Watts, New York Times, April 15, 2007.
- Rethinking Information Diversity in Networks, Eytan Bakshy, Facebook Notes, January 2012.
- Global Information Networks, Jon Kleinberg, CCC (YouTube), March 2009.
XKCD: Marketing Interview
