http://waderoush.typepad.com/twr/2005/03/james_surowieck.html
Rhody writes about the arguements that James Surowiecki revealed in a conference he gave. Surowiecki talks about all the fuss about collective action and collaboration over the last decade with all the new websites. But in a way he looks at the wisdom and use of these type of situations with scepticism. Rhody briefly brings […]

Topix Reinvents itself as citizen journalist site
It seems as though user interactive sites, such as Wikipedia or even UrbanDictionary.com, have longer lifetimes than read only sites. Following this trend, Topix has transformed itself from a software-based news aggregator site to a citizen journalist hub where site visitors can post whatever news they please.  Prior to […]

In last Sunday’s Times Magazine, Rachel Louise Snyder writes with news of “a network theory for building a savings account.” When John Caskey, an economics professor at Swarthmore, conducted interviews in two low-income communities, he found that many “didn’t save not because they actually couldn’t [i.e. they couldn’t afford to], but because they believed they […]

Flow of information is a potent theme in today’s world. On one hand, it is the gateway to an aware and well-informed society while on the other; it can lead to socially non-optimal situations and in the extreme case, have dangerous repercussions. One example of such a negative impact is the spread of suicide epidemics. […]

 
http://www.cs.umanitoba.ca/~arindam/pubs/MiM07_aina.pdf
Peer-to-peer (P2P) networking is the primary method by which pirated music is disseminated.  To combat this epidemic, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has begun to seed corrupt files that track the file downloader’s IP address so that he may be prosecuted. 
The similarity between file sharing via P2P networks and the information cascades […]

The idea of information cascading can be placed in many different human situations. This can be seen by all the examples given in class (ie: fashion, juries, and entertainment). However, with all these human examples, many people can make the argument that all it takes is one strong willed individual to break […]

The phrase “The Long Tail” was first coined by Chris Anderson in an October 2004 article “The Long Tail” to describe the business and economic model of internet companies like Amazon and Netflix whose sales revenue from selling only a few copies of millions of items was comparable to sales from selling millions of copies […]

Google gets into the political arena.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-googltics25mar25,1,1251038.story?coll=la-headlines-business
http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/05/63557
 
We saw in class that Google sells certain keywords to merchants such as Ithaca Calendar Clocks and shopping website like eBay and Amazon. However, sellers and traders are not the only ones buying Google “AdWords”, politicians are seeing the vast reach of internet advertising and jumping in. Back in 2004, […]

When it comes to athletic prowess, don’t believe your eyes.

The above link is New Yorker article written by Malcolm Gladwell on the highly esteemed Allen Iverson. Iverson is ranked as one of the best players of the game by coaches and fans alike. He is an exciting player to watch but is he […]

Jumping on the Bandwagon
In this blog article, “Jumping on the Bandwagon,” Ian Cooper analyzes the rise and fall of the stock market, specifically, Black Monday, and how it occurred as a result of an information cascade among investors. A few investors may latch on to a bit of information and try to make a quick […]