Skip to main content



Networks, Ties, and Collective Action

In the introductory discussion of graph theory and social networks, bridges were defined to be “an edge whose removal would put its endpoints in different components.” There was also discussion of strong and weak ties, and in Granovetter’s essay “The strength of weak ties,” he explains that strong ties reflect a significantly greater amount of […]

Triadic Closure in Marketing

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/17/why-word-of-mouth-marketing-is-the-most-important-social-media/ http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/network-based-marketing-using-existing-customers-to-help-sell-to-new-ones/ Network based marketing, particularly Word of Mouth Marketing (WOMM), is one of the most successful forms of advertisement. It uses the core features of the Strong Triadic Closure Property to reach more customers and make positive impressions. Word of Mouth Marketing is exactly what it sounds like: A company uses consumers’ word of […]

Zombie Apocalypse: A Network of the Undead

The concept of zombies is so ingrained in recent pop culture that the science community has decided that zombism should be subject to the same research as traditional deadly diseases. In fact, a group of Cornell graduates created an interactive map that shows how the disease would be spread depending on where the outbreak first […]

The Flight of Ebola

On October 17, 2014, Nate Silver published an article on why a ban on air travel to the West African countries affected by ebola would not work. Four days later, the United States forced any flights from Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone into one of five East Coast airports, where passengers would then be screened for […]

Cars – the Next Frontier for Connected Technology

NBCNews recently reported on a new partnership between German automaker BMW and Oregon tech startup Connected Signals, aiming to save commuters time, gas and frustration in traffic. Historically, traffic lights have been largely unpredictable, and a hindrance to anyone making their commute in a motor vehicle. As stated in the article, a number of cities have […]

Kessler Syndrome and Networked Space Debris

Kessler Syndrome is the process in which objects in Earth’s orbit collide with space debris, creating a cascading effect that exponentially increases the rate of further collisions. In the worst case scenario, the fulfillment of Kessler Syndrome would create such a dense field of debris surrounding Earth that rocket launches would be nigh-impossible, as any spacecraft leaving the atmosphere […]

Microsoft’s New Partnership with Dell and HP

Yesterday, September 8th 2015, Microsoft announced that it will be partnering with Dell and HP to retail their Microsoft Surface tablets. This is quite a surprising partnership, as Dell and HP have been two very large competitors with Microsoft in the tablet market ever since their launch of the Microsoft-branded Surface tablet a few years […]

Detecting Networks using Mobile Phone Data

In this era of smart phones, consumers are connecting with each other using their smartphones. Although on a micro level one phone call being made may not have much to say about a network but on a macro scale, the phone data provides indicators about the connectivity of people across cities and localities. In recent […]

Celebrity Accepts Invite to Marine Corps Ball by a Complete Stranger

The modern world is connected in more ways than ever before. One of the most prominent connections, or networks if you will, is that of social media. On the topic of social media, Facebook often comes immediately to mind. Some people use Facebook to keep in contact with their friends and family while others use […]

Information Flow in Global Language Network

The figure below is Global Language Network (GLN) cited from an interactive website which is constructed according to a project by the MIT Media Lab Macro Connections group. There are options to configure the GLN so that it presents the network from different perspectives. The GLN derived from their method reveals the hierarchical structure of […]

keep looking »

Blogging Calendar

September 2015
M T W T F S S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930  

Archives