complexitystudies » internet http://www.complexitystudies.org metaphysics, philosophy, and a vision of the future Thu, 30 Oct 2008 20:24:13 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 TouchGraph Google Browser http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/09/05/touchgraph-google-browser/ http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/09/05/touchgraph-google-browser/#comments Wed, 05 Sep 2007 18:17:54 +0000 guenther http://dao.complexitystudies.org/2007/09/05/touchgraph-google-browser/ Woah – this is nifty! Enter a site and it will graph the connections leading to/from it:

TouchGraph | Products: Google Browser

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]]> http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/09/05/touchgraph-google-browser/feed/ 0 Meritocracy in science and in the blogosphere http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/06/meritocracy-in-science-and-in-the-blogosphere/ http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/06/meritocracy-in-science-and-in-the-blogosphere/#comments Thu, 05 Apr 2007 23:17:11 +0000 guenther http://dao.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/06/meritocracy-in-science-and-in-the-blogosphere/ Janet has a wonderful entry on self-reinforcing hierarchies both in the blogosphere and in the world of science. The gist of the post is that success is not necessarily a function of excellence, but involves other factors such as luck and having the right support at the right time – once structures are entrenched, they often remain so. Adventures in Ethics and Science: Hierarchy, meritocracy, the blogosphere, and the real world.

As to the question as to what to do to avoid succumbing to the hierarchy effect – I would like to offer this tip, which also applies to many real life situtations:

adopt an 80/20 exploitation/exploration strategy.

That means 80% of the time “exploit” your current ressources or whatever, and 20% of the time search for new avenues/ways to do things.

Applying this strategy to your information gathering behaviour will let you benefit from good sources but avoid getting entrenched in citation/social/power hierarchies.

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]]> http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/06/meritocracy-in-science-and-in-the-blogosphere/feed/ 0 FeedBurner http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/03/feedburner/ http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/03/feedburner/#comments Tue, 03 Apr 2007 20:46:46 +0000 guenther http://dao.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/03/feedburner/ I have “burned” my feeds, if you like receiving news from this page into your favourite feed reader (for example Google Reader or Bloglines) then please use this URL:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/complexitystudies

It should be automagically detected by your feed reader software.

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]]> http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/04/03/feedburner/feed/ 0 Wikipedia http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/03/21/wikipedia/ http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/03/21/wikipedia/#comments Wed, 21 Mar 2007 16:36:48 +0000 guenther http://dao.complexitystudies.org/2007/03/21/wikipedia/ Thank you Cathy for this super article, expanding on the idea of what wikipedia is actually about.

“We Can’t Ignore the Influence of Digital Technologies” Op Ed from Chronicle of Higher Education | HASTAC

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]]> http://www.complexitystudies.org/2007/03/21/wikipedia/feed/ 0 The net changes research… http://www.complexitystudies.org/2006/10/19/elite-universities/ http://www.complexitystudies.org/2006/10/19/elite-universities/#comments Thu, 19 Oct 2006 21:33:38 +0000 guenther http://dao.complexitystudies.org/2006/10/19/statistical-modeling-causal-inference-and-social-science-productivity-at-elite-universities/ Here’s to the Internet:

Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science: Productivity at elite universities

We study the location-specific component in research productivity of economics and finance faculty who have ever been affiliated with the top 25 universities in the last three decades. We find that there was a positive effect of being affiliated with an elite university in the 1970s; this effect weakened in the 1980s and disappeared in the 1990s. We decompose this university fixed effect and find that its decline is due to the reduced importance of physical access to productive research colleagues. We also find that salaries increased the most where the estimated externality dropped the most, consistent with the hypothesis that the de-localization of this externality makes it more difficult for universities to appropriate any rent. Our results shed some light on the potential effects of the internet revolution on knowledge-based industries.

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