* Here’s what I’ve bothered *sigh* falsely signing onto this network to post: Information Growth & Diffusion Simulator. Ooooh!
A rather handsome statement of principle
“The question of how to promote both growth and diffusion of information is both difficult and urgent. It critically affects who has access to what information and when. The nature of information’s propagation, however, can depend on such a variety of factors that simulation becomes a valuable means of exploring and gaining insight. Propagation can depend on such factors as:
- Incentives for information sharing.
- Pattern variations in the shape of network connections.
- Information sharing rates, learning rates, and decay rates.
- Nonrivalry (the ability of two people to share the same information at the same time).
- Agent strategies for gathering information.
These factors are represented to various degrees in the simulator you are about to explore. Various audiences may find it useful.
Public Policy — What policy levers can we manipulate to increase the total amount of information while reducing "cyber-stratification?"
Economics — Do agents’ rational strategies increase endogenous information growth?
When is growth increasing or decreasing returns to scale?
Business — Is sharing information advantageous or is it better to keep information secret? Are there useful principles for knowledge management?
Teaching — How can the tenets of information economics be easily explained given the complexity of the issues?
A number of scenarios are currently provided, so are tools for creating your own scenarios. In fact …”
I suspect these came from Prof. Marshall van Alstyne.
BTW, their “Indigo” applet is rather snappy!
*Update Although the applet is still running and the rest of the site is still active my link to the Professor’s page is gone, stale. So as a peek: Indigo tutorials 7MARCH2010*
* Something a lot like banazir‘s Bayesian Network tools in Java (BNJ): “JavaBayes” – version 0.346; “Bayesian Networks in Java”.
* And, speaking of things Bayesian, see “Reasoning with Uncertainty“, Problem Set 5 from EECS492. Viz.“
“Task 1:
Consider a world that consists of two different kinds of people. Some of these people can use the force and some of them can not. People sometimes make strange stuff happen when they can use the force. Other people may also make strange stuff happen even though they cannot use the force (though not that often). Let the probability:
(1) Prob(Uses_Force(x) => Strange_Stuff(x))
[…]”[The solutions page is actually quite pleasant reading! hfx_ben]
(Thomas M. Bartold is a PhD Candidate in AI.)
Bigraphical Programming Language” … I’m sure, from the contents, that this is meant to be “bi-graphical”. In any case, very interesting! (BTW, you might have to click “Show All” … something wonky about this page design.)
And almost totally unrelated: Habermas’ “Communications and the Evolution of Society”
Part of “Dear Habermas” (A Journal of Postmodern and Critical Thought Devoted to Academic Discourse on Peace and Justice) reads as follows:
“Verstehen, in German, means “to understand,” and Verstehende is the adjective from, “understanding.” So, a sociology that understands because it takes many factors into account. Those many factors include “situatedness,” understanding the fit of the observed facts or actions in the context in which those facts or actions are situated, multiple perspectives, the need for stability and closure at some point, access and opportunity for the expression of validity claims.. “
The alternatives to a project of understanding includes such tactics as systematic distortion and manipulation. I think it boils down to a question of pessimism concerning human nature … but that’s just me, right? *grin*
see also: “Theorising Environment and Culture” (google’s version of the PDF; the doc version of this lecture [#5] is here, and #4 is here … #3 is here, #2, and finally #1. ”Habermas” at Wikipedia; and editorial at World Socialist!