Cascading the Crowds
Information cascades are all around us. This can be seen in the drastic movements of the financial markets and even in rapid growth of revolutionary groups during the Arab spring. Chris Ellis and John Fender, economic professors from the University of Oregon and the University of Birmingham, use the idea of information cascades to […]
Black Friday Information Cascade
Why is Black Friday such a popular day for shopping? The obvious answer is because there are great deals that make waiting in line, or fighting for doorbusters worth it. But whether the deals offered on Black Friday are actually good is hard to tell. Most people know that Black Friday is more beneficial to […]
Everyday Information Cascades
Studying information cascades as an abstract mathematical network phenomenon covers all the fundamentals, but learning everyday examples gives a more complete picture. In the article, “Mass Movements: Information Cascades,” an anonymous The Economist writer uses Netflix as an example of a stock price impacted by information cascades. At first, the Netflix stock was only increasing […]
Destigmatizing the Ebola Virus in Africa
Although the Ebola virus in West Africa has taken the back seat in national media coverage in the United States compared to weeks ago, the virus continues to rage on in West Africa. One issue surrounding the treatment of those individuals who are infected with the virus has consistently been how to get those individuals […]
Cascading on Facebook
Recently in lecture, we have been discussing about different information cascades and how they effect different types of networks. This obviously applies to real world situations; one such situation where this applies are the recent trends of Facebook. First there was the ALS ice bucket challenge, where people would pour buckets of ice-water over their […]
Obama Immigration Policy and Cascading Behavior
Original Link: http://online.wsj.com/articles/obamas-immigration-plan-seen-impacting-wages-job-moves-1416502561 Factiva Link (requires login): https://global.factiva.com/ga/default.aspx?imt=2&ao=14&aod=1811683 On Thursday, Nov. 20, President Obama announced a new immigration plan that will temporarily protect certain undocumented immigrants — estimated between 4 and 5 million people that meet certain criteria — from deportation. This politically controversial move will also allow these individuals to legally apply to jobs and pay […]
Google Plus’ Tactics to Gain Adoption
While Google’s social network has been considered far from a victor against Facebook, their project has become by far Facebook’s most successful competitor. Much of this success has been a direct result of Google’s success in other networks; sites such as YouTube or GMail have given Google a very large audience to push their social […]
The Rise of E-sports
From it’s introduction over 30 years ago, video games have enraptured the attention of consumers from all ages. It became a niche, and a veritable community of video gamers and game developers fostered and grew into a staple group in society. Despite the modest beginnings of video gaming, the recent explosion of popularity of video […]
Ello: A Struggling, Valiant Idea
Ello is a new social media site designed to solve many issues their creators find present in facebook. It’s a public benefit corporation; it’s created by professional artists and designers; and perhaps most different, it’s ad free. Though a seemingly valiant idea, Ello does not have nearly the reach that facebook has, and many in […]
An Audience as a Pentatonic Scale Network
I recently stumbled across this video of Bobby McFerrin using the crowd at the World Science Festival as an instrument in his song. As Bobby jumps around on stage, the crowd produces the desired pitch according to his relative positioning. The discussion from which this clip was taken was centered around the connections between neuroscience and […]
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