Beme and the Threshold Rule
CNN announced today that they were going to acquire a social media application called Beme, a deal that was valued at 25 million dollars. This app allows you to send 4 second un-edited videos into a social media platform. Unlike Instagram and Snapchat, the user cannot modify their content before sending it. In the article, CNN said they […]
The Stages of Adoption of Technology
In class we talked about certain thresholds for how technology spreads and becomes dominant. We did so using a q value which represents the minimum fraction of a node’s neighbors using the new technology before the node itself starts using the technology too. This article by On Digital Marketing takes this topic one step further […]
Critical Mass
http://andrewchen.co/social-network-marketing-getting-from-zero-to-critical-mass/ This article discusses critical mass and how once a product reaches a certain number of users, it will begin to expand rapidly. It points out that the point of “critical mass” is different and varies based on the situation. For example, the critical mass of Skype is only 2 people, while a forum […]
Fake News and the Market for Lemons
Since the election, there has been criticism of leading tech companies about the dissemination of fake news articles concerning the democratic and republican parties. Google and Facebook are under fire for allowing these erroneous articles to appear in people’s newsfeeds unchecked and unverified. These news stories can become viral and people will believe them just […]
GLEAM – An Epidemic Forecaster
As the world becomes more connected, and travel becomes even easier, it is especially important to be able to understand and prevent the spread of dangerous and highly contagious diseases. Without an understanding of networks and disease epidemics, the world’s population could quickly become infected with a strain of virus. In an article done by […]
Pucatrade and a modern trading network
For those who know me, I’m a pretty serious Magic: the Gathering player. When I used to live in Boston, it normally wasn’t too difficult to trade for any random rares that I might need for my decks, due to the relatively large playerbase that we had at Pandemonium (The Local Gaming Store in Cambridge). […]
Loss of small-world connectivity in Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease that manifests itself as impaired memory and cognitive dysfunction. Using a network theoretical approach to modelling the brain, Alzheimer’s disease is thought to cause disruption of large-scale connections between brain areas. This decrease in connections between brain areas is thought to underlie the loss of higher cognitive function seen […]
Linux Adoption
When talking about the adoption of various technologies, operating systems is one that comes to mind almost immediately. Most people can be separated out into either Windows, Mac, or Linux users, and each side tends to be pretty adamant about their choice. Windows is the standard on nearly every PC, Mac has become popular because […]
Pros and Cons of Different Voting Structures
After an incredibly frustrating election season, there are many Americans in search of a perfect voting system that seems impossible to find. Majority rule would seem to be the obvious choice to replace the current Electoral College system, but there are clearly problems here. First of all, neither candidate officially received the majority in this […]
Obama Schools Clinton on the Threshold Model
This election cycle has been colorful and exhausting, to say the least. The vast majority of pollsters picked Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump, arguing her superior credentials and political experience would be enough to carry her past Trump’s populist oratory and outsider bravado. Whether the pollster leaned democratic, conservative, or purely statistical (see ESPN’s analytics […]
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