Networks & Black Holes

Given that when networks grow - they evolve in a way where they get more dense and their diameter shrinks. Is this not an example of a black hole?... Extreme Networking!

Network Analysis & Sport

Awesome link about World Cup passing network analysis (link).

Can you imagine if coach's had real-time data flows feedback into an iPad dashboard - this would really facilitate agile response times.

The Boiled Frog Effect

Have a frog sit in water while you slowly increase the temperature - and they say you can boil the frog alive. Throw a frog in boiling hot water and he jumps out right away.

As a new entrant to the workforce - I feel like jumping out of the boiling water that is my work .... whereas my (older) coworkers are a bunch of boiled frogs. The problem is that, currently, I can not affect the trajectory of my company's future.....I have to 'gain experience'....I'm scared that by the time I gain this 'experience,' I myself will be a boiled frog.

Personal Information as Currency

Can you imagine if companies started to pay their customers for certain types of data. That is, data that was automatically collected on...say, product use/behavior, the individuals history or networks (sleeping, eating, activity patterns, etc..), and then customer could use that information to 'sell' to a company.

You could essentially turn automated data collection into a currency that is viable to use in the market place. This could have potential positive uses for individuals that currently have no ability/aspirations to make money (e.g. the homeless alcoholic could sell his data to the government in exchange for money which the homeless person could use for booze or shelter...likely booze)

Chipping away

The butterfly effect is said to happen as a result of many tiny initiating events that then go boom, splash et voila...a tipping point. Wouldn't you be so much better off if you could actually keep track of all those tiny initiating events as you move through space and time...if only a company could develop automated data collection devices and feedback mechanisms that give you real-time feedback on these tiny initiating events.

The love of the group

If someone from your in-group is modeling bad behavior (e.g. cheating) then you are more likely to cheat yourself (e.g. Enron). If someone from the out-group is modeling bad behavior then you are less likely to engage in the bad behavior.

Idea from this TED Talk by Dan Ariely

and from this Awesome Blog

Identify the few things that matter, and keep repeating them

Something I’ve noticed from speakers that are termed ‘experts’: They have a few examples, and continuously bring them up and talk about them. You can hear two or three different keynote addresses in which they are providing, recounting the same stories over and over. Given that so many minor details require attention, it’s important that the leaders select the key foundations of their business and continue to repeat it to others (*drive it iin them!). Dell executives (among many others) will look at the same 3 numbers everyday to drive home what they need to focus on (I guess they hope this cascades out). Ability to grab a few foundational aspects and speak a few specific truths about these aspects goes along way in showing employees that you have some control in directing the future path of the business/department/etc.. Therefore, it is extremely important that leaders do not devote their attention to urgent, but not important, things (Bennis, 1997). In fact, devoting your time to non-urgent, but important things is actually the prime area to develop your leadership skills…

Drawn from Pfeffer & Sutton (2006) – Hard facts, dangerous half-truths, & total nonsense: Profiting from evidence-based management

Harnessing the Network

We live life in the network. We check our e-mails regularly, make mobile phone calls from almost any location, swipe transit cards to use public transportation, and make purchases with credit cards. Each of these transactions leaves digital traces that can be compiled into comprehensive pictures of both individual and group behavior, with the potential to transform our understanding of our lives, organizations, and societies.
However, these digital traces are being wiped away and/or stored in their respective silos. Efforts are currently underway in attempts to begin documenting and exploring the behaviors, interactions and the subsequent networks that emerges from our behavioral cues.

Basically, it's a way to get more intimate in knowing ourselves (are you acting differently lately, maybe you need a vacation). Not only is the micro understanding going to be helpful, but also the macro trends that emerge from interactions. A big issue now though is privacy. How do you get the important information without compromising people's privacy and safety.

Extracted from, Computational Social Science by Lazer et al., 2009 in Science vol. 323, p. 721-22.

Check out this site for a glimpse at the socio-badge: http://hd.media.mit.edu/badges/

Simulating a simulation? Get something to model itself.

Get the organization to start modeling itself. We need to start collecting/tracking HUGE amounts of networked data and then find behaviors in the data that re-occur. Set them up as attractors.

The emergence of a nervous system of humanity

What do you do with all this data? If you know where the people are and how they are behaving, you can look at health variables (progression of flu and other disease). If you can look at the data on the phone, this may facilitate a rough understanding of the person s life. The key here is the ability for our technology to literally collect all the data in a continuous way (and have that data presented in real-time). The importance herein lies in automated data collection and dissemination, instead of following conventional methods (e.g., you get the data from the test, send it off to analyze, have it come back to the expert, have the expert disseminate it to the stakeholder). So we need to be trans-disciplinarian and pull technologies from various silo ed fields to help drive us to this future .current efforts are underway, and have been so for the past 30+ years! Perhaps the tipping point is near .


Drawn from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWlRt4ybg4Q