Dr. Hughes, a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of CT, wrote in article in which he used the Prisoner’s Dilemma to explain Western society’s general practice of monogamy. He demonstrates the prisoner’s dilemma game and societal equilibria for three types of monogamy: patriarchal polygyny, loose patriarchal monogamy, and strict monogamy (the form of […]

The modern Republican Party can essentially be divided into several factions: social conservatives, fiscal conservatives, defense conservatives, paleoconservatives and libertarians (more at Wikipedia).  While not nearly as clear-cut as examples we have seen in lecture, this sort of arrangement naturally lends itself to conceptualizing by the network model.  To understand the nodes (party subgroups) and […]

            In lecture, not too long ago, the topic of balanced networks – namely balanced, triangular networks – was discussed. We defined a balanced network as one containing all three positive links (e.g. a three-person friendship) or one containing two negative links and one positive link (e.g. two friends who mutually dislike another). In class […]

The Office of Population Research at Princeton University explores historic, present and future trends in population growth, decline and control, which in turn has consequences for network structure and interaction, economic viability, social mobility, governmental regulation and environmental capacity. One of the most famous experiments conducted in this field is the Princeton European Fertility […]

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS128592+05-Dec-2007+BW20071205
http://www.csoresearch.com/news/articles/release_120507.pdf
The article linked above details an alliance formed between MonsterTrak and Career Services Offices, two powerful online career service providers. MonsterTrak has become widely adopted, however CSO still remains the industry leader in career services automation. The two companies will now be able to offer an improved product to their clients. Their pairing will allow […]

     Since its creation, the Internet has been a fast and easy way for people to communicate and share information.  Starting with basic networks whose nodes could be counted with your hands, the Internet has evolved into a gigantic web spaning the entire globe and linking billions of its inhabitants.  Similar to the Pony Express and telegram of the past, […]

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/columnist/2006-06-25-physics-of-ebay_x.htm
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn9398
In class, we discussed how auctions on eBay are essentially second price sealed bid auctions. We also noted that in these types of auctions, bidding one’s true value is a dominant strategy. But some of the unique properties of eBay auctions - their fixed time limit and the fact that people can bid […]

In class, we explored the advantages of being embedded in a network. As opposed to a node that lies on the fringes of a network, a node in the center of a network has edges with every node in the network, which allows it to interact with these other nodes directly. The influence of this […]

Last Call: Analog Cell Phone Service Disappearing:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,142119-c,cellphones/article.html
When one thinks of networks one usually thinks of a large cellular network. On February 18 analog cell phone service will be shut down permanently. AT&T and Verizon, the “biggest U.S. mobile operators” decided that there will be no more analog service offered […]

Recently, a New York Times article announced the thought of a merger between the social network powerhouse, MySpace, run by Rupert Murdoch, and the BBC. This expansion of internet broadcasting will further increase the already large networks that the BBC and MySpace have already built. As most […]