Archive for February, 2008

The Power of the Middleman

In the world of media, there are three key players: the content creators, the consumers, and the distribution points.  The ‘distribution channel’ is then simply the path from the creators to the consumers.  In recent years, this model has gone through some extensive changes that have produced far reaching effects on the way we do […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Last minute bidding in eBay auctions.

LAST MINUTE BIDDING AND THE RULES FOR ENDING SECOND-PRICE AUCTIONS: THEORY AND EVIDENCE FROM A NATURAL EXPERIMENT ON THE INTERNET
This paper was written by Alvin E. Roth and Axel Ockenfels (of Harvard Economics/Business Administration, respectively). While the latter part of their paper is very technical, the qualitative remarks posed by Roth and Ockenfels shed light […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Does Game Theory Actually Apply in the Real World?

Link: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/91/debunk.html?page=0%2C0
During lecture we spent a lot time talking about different types of game theory. But are there really any situations in business that these payoffs really apply to. Not many people deal with two prisoners confessing or a dove and a hawk fighting over food. Sure there is a general way for all the […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Airport Incentives Drive Prices Down

http://www.usatoday.com/travel/flights/2008-02-25-airport-incentives_N.htm
 
Boston’s Logan airport is in a city in which many site-seeing places are available.  However, the city is realizing that it is missing out on a lot of business simply because they do not offer any non-stop flights to Asia, Latin America, Africa, or the Middle-East.  This forces people to take connecting flights, which often […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Digitial Public Spaces as Weak-Tie Bridges

In class we discussed the theory of weak ties and strong ties, and the idea that a weak tie bridge is inevitably a powerful social connection because it opens up an entirely new set of resources to an existing strong-tie social network.  This reminded me of the role of public space as the site of encounter […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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So you wanna be a baller?

http://www.forbes.com/free_forbes/2007/0507/124.html
The above article by Lyor Cohen, American Chairman and CEO of Recorded Music for Warner Music Group, details the elements necessary to be able to make rap superstars. Cohen didn’t always work for Warner Music Group, he got his start as a club promoter, eventually DMC’s road manager, manager of Rush Management, and eventually […]

Posted in Topics: social studies

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The Real Life Application Of Game Theory

www.pipelinepub.com/0207/pdf/Pipelinev3i8Ariticle3.pdf
Above is a link to an article published in Pipeline magazine (http://www.pipelinepub.com/) called “Avoiding Future Schlock: The Real Life Application Of ‘Game Theory’” by Alana Grelyak and Tim Young. It’s a pretty quick read, and the most important thing to know before you get into it is to not get intimidated or give up […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Cuban Missile Crisis as Game Theory

Looking through the topics that we have covered thus far in lecture I became particularly interested in Game Theory. In my personal opinion, games govern most of our lives, whether directly or indirectly. Since this idea is present during most social interactions I thought it would be interesting to find an article about this topic. […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Respondent Driven Sampling

http://www.respondentdrivensampling.org/
http://www.migrationinformation.org/USfocus/display.cfm?ID=441
 
Respondent Driven Sampling (RDS) is a technique used by sociologists and other researchers to study hidden populations.  It is especially hard to identify and reach such populations in order to conduct research on them because data assigning people into these demographics is not readily available.  Some examples of hidden populations include second generation immigrants, injection […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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Formula for Love?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/29/science/29tier.html?scp=10&sq=game+theory&st=nyt
At the end of the day, it can be well argued that love is what we all strive for as individuals. Unfortunately, love is a tricky thing and by that, I mean difficult and hard to find just the right person who will love you and all your weird tendencies. In response to this, online […]

Posted in Topics: Education

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