Social Commerce- The New and Improved Social Network
Source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/helenwang/2014/08/25/why-china-will-lead-innovation-in-social-and-mobile-commerce/ This article, although quite biased in its discussion of how social media ought to be used, explains some very interesting points about social commerce. Social commerce is essentially the use of social networks to market and sell products online. According to the article, many people in China use social media to get recommendations […]
How Does Facebook Suggest Friends?
In Udemy’s online blog post, “How Does Facebook Suggests Friends?” author Cate Leona gives multiple examples of awkward and unexpected friend requests Facebook suggests to its users. In one incident, Facebook suggested to a young woman, a guy whom she formerly had a short-lived romance with, 10 years later after they had met. Friend suggestions […]
Structural Balance in the Animal Kingdom
Quite literally everyone and their mother has heard of the story of Ugly Duckling- an inspiring tale about a poor creature that is ostracized for its strange appearance. What you might not know, however, is that ostracization is not uncommon in the real life networks of animals such as chimpanzees, lions, wolves, and even bees, as […]
Dating and Game Theory
Dating and Game Theory: How to Make Better Decisions in Your love Life,” by Dr. Ali Binazir discusses the application of game theory to modern dating. Binazir views a dating couple as two players in a game where the goal is to end up happy with your relationship. The article opens with a dilemma; your […]
Nicholas Christakis: How Social Networks Predict Epidemics
In his engaging Ted Talk Professor Nicholas Christakis of Yale university uses clever thinking to show how the social networks can predict epidemics before they happen. As of the filming of the talk, the methodology the CDC used to predict epidemics was to record data based on instances of diseases in doctors’ offices nation wide. […]
PageRank: Network Theory & Google
While Google’s modern internal search algorithms are unknown to the public, the details of one of their initial search algorithms, named PageRank, are widely known. In 1999, Sergey Brin and Larry Page published a research paper titled “The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web” that described a method to determine the relative importance […]
Limitation of Social-Media-Based Activism
Social networks seem to have revolutionized social activism. People no long need to shout out for supports, but a single inflammatory post on social media can easily help people with the same opinion and idea gather together online. However, an article published on The New Yorker provides some new perspective. Its author, Gladwell, claimed that […]
Game Theory Behind Edward Snowden
At this point in time, almost everyone knows about the infamous (or famous) Edward Snowden. People have taken stances on whether this whistleblower should be brought to justice or hailed as a hero. This doesn’t change the fact that he has chosen to become a fugitive from the American government, and has taken asylum in […]
Some Trouble with Building Networks for Animals
Social networks form within animal communities similar to the way they form in society. However, relationships between animals are sometimes harder to analyze. The attached article talks about the difficulties in trying to collect animal data to create appropriate networks. Two of the main problems researchers keep running into are keeping the networks dynamic and […]
Social Networks and the New Treatment of Domestic Abuse
In the world of professional sports, particularly the National Football League (NFL), domestic abuse has not always received an appropriate amount of attention. However, this lack of investigation may never occur again following the publication of the most recent incident. In June 2014, former professional running back for the Baltimore Ravens, Ray Rice, attacked his […]
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