This article (http://www.inc.com/magazine/19950301/2182_Printer_Friendly.html) from Inc.com discusses the new industry model in Hollywood, that of small businesses connected in a network. The article discusses how more and more outsourcing is being used to put together different parts of a movie in different areas with different companies taking the helm of the mini-projects that come together. This creates an emphasis on developing ties between small businesses and large businesses in order to maintain healthy prospects of getting to work on projects. This mimics the way that social networking sites and network news sites that have been posted about in this blog distribute power and destroy the traditional model of a simple hierarchy. It thus also relates to Gladwell’s concept of taking graph theory and applying it to become a sort of grand unified theory that explains intrinsic behavior, and thus an analysis of the nascent networking model is relevant to this course.

The article also discusses power, as said in the lines, “The real creators of the film, responsible for everything from its special effects to payroll and security, are a host of small companies and freelance contributors who collaborate for only as long as the project requires — and who are drawn from the loose network of specialists that today holds the real power in Hollywood.” As digital effects and post-production companies become more attractive, they thus garner more power for themselves as they will have more corporations interested in them. It also means that within the network these small businesses have to compete with each other, which is relevant to the game nature of this course. The article discusses the “intensified global competition” and “rising customer expecations… born in part from the explosion in choices.” This really emphasizes the competitive aspect, and thus can be related to a game.

The consequences of this system are judged to be beneficial, as is common with market economy strucutres. The classic argument being given is that the competition makes better prices and better products.

Another piece of information that the article has about networks is location. Like in urban theory and planning, clusters have been known to be very important to developing industry because of the networking that it allows the companies withion them. Here the article talks about the importance of where power is being concentrated.

Another network piece of information is of ties, as the article talks about Richard Hart, who got a job as a lightning techinician at MGM through a friend.