tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11042321003615611012024-03-13T07:12:03.265-07:00Myshkin's travel blogFrom a PhD blog to a travel blog of sorts. Here I am.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comBlogger36125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-79602983469721059232011-06-14T22:28:00.001-07:002011-06-14T22:28:24.634-07:00At the Unreasonable MansionArrived in Boulder, in Daniel's car, accompanied by his dog. <div>Neat setup, had dinner, talked to a few other folks. Its going to be fun!</div><div><br></div><div>Funnily enough, dont feel too tired after the 1.5 day journey. Perhaps the breaks in between helped! :P</div> <div><br></div> Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-28941174007519055742011-06-14T22:15:00.000-07:002011-06-14T22:24:50.805-07:00With or without youAnother rest stop. <div>The bus driver told us 10 mins and then the bus would leave with or without us.</div><div><br /></div><div>Well, he was true to his word. </div><div>The bus set off without 4 passengers! </div><div><br /></div><div>Somewhere in the front, there were apparently 2 passengers missing: their belongings were strewn across the seats. A boy and his mother. Nearby passengers flagged this to the driver, who pointed out that they had been warned.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then another passenger pointed out that the father of 2 boys (minors) on the bus was also missing. The boys (9-11) would have no one to look after them during the journey and esp when it stopped at Denver. This time, the driver took the bus around and we picked up the 4. </div><div>Overall, I think this particular driver wouldn't be winning Mr Popularity with this lot of passengers anytime soon...</div><div><br /></div><div>Long after everyone had settled down, the indignant murmurs continued, with some passengers even wanting to report the driver for kidnapping to the cops! (this is the US) Mostly, the indignation was about the "10 minutes" promised - while the bus started off again only after 7-8 mins...</div><div>Eventually, I think the worst for the driver is a telling off from somebody at Greyhound (apparently, the 4 passengers abandoned at the rest stop had called Greyhound)</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, we got to Denver at 7 pm (no passengers missing - although some passengers luggage was missing - having been left behind in Kansas City!)</div>Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-53921587617884933252011-06-14T10:34:00.001-07:002011-06-14T10:34:16.625-07:00we aint in kansas anymorerest stop at the last bit of kansas. lots of wizard of oz memorabilia.<br>had a subway.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-21203865747903667142011-06-14T05:56:00.001-07:002011-06-14T05:56:32.200-07:00kansas citystopover for half n hr in kansas city which i used for a bfast of<br>orange juice n french fries. hoping my checkin luggage is travelin<br>with me on the same bus!Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-57151027063888610282011-06-13T16:33:00.001-07:002011-06-13T16:33:44.738-07:00off to st louisjust boarded the bus for st louis finally... at a time i should have<br>been boarding the bus FROM st louis :P<p><br>a few observations about greyhound:<br>/buses r comfortable with ac reclining seats<br>/organization around the buses is a shambles<br>/no signs or schedule info at stations. delays guaranteed. general confusion<br>/lack of cleanliness at stns seems exaggerated. seem ok.<br>/large stations but v inefficient system. no wonder chinatown buses r<br>doing well with only a fraction of greyhounds resources.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-30428903128516284092011-06-13T13:20:00.001-07:002011-06-13T13:20:35.697-07:00walking with kingsthe missed connection landed me with a 6 hr layover in the music city<br>... nashville.<br>walked downtown. saw fort nashville. posed with elvis. saw the orig b<br>b king cafe.<p>was v interesting despite having luggage to lug around.<p>so far hv met a bunch of interesting charcters on the hound. Lawrence<br>of Alabama elementary school teacher n farmer. David the artist with<br>30 jobs ..frm savannah. orlando frm miami manager of hookah cafes.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-1613788550955468462011-06-13T07:30:00.001-07:002011-06-13T07:30:05.789-07:00enjoying day journey to nashvillev pleasant. not so full bus. good route. even started out reading the<br>rough guide to usa on my kindle. may have a 6 hr stopover in<br>nashville. hope something interesting there. meanwhile had an orange<br>chivda n chocs!Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-50886941732963225592011-06-13T05:57:00.000-07:002011-06-13T05:58:01.603-07:00atlanta to nashvilleas suspected missed my connection to st louis. now on abus to<br>nashville where i am to catch an evening connection to st louis.<p>other people in the same boat as well.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-84740053601406455682011-06-13T05:54:00.001-07:002011-06-13T05:54:31.737-07:00back to charlottebus finally started...<br>thought i was on my way to atlanta finally ... got on the bus n dozed<br>off... woke up back in charlotte. apparently something wrong with the<br>bus... driver decided to swap buses. so after a further delay at<br>charlotte i was away.<p>got to atlanta finally at 6 30... maybe missed my connection to st louis?Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-68425160740432204842011-06-13T05:44:00.000-07:002011-06-13T05:45:00.577-07:00already latemy first greyhound trip n the bus is late... waiting round for the<br>atlanta bus to show up....<p>funny thing is there is no wrtten communication at any greyhound station.Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-78075622163146353152011-06-12T17:28:00.001-07:002011-06-12T17:28:37.389-07:00Leaving towards UnreasonableAm boarding a Greyhound tonight on a long journey to Denver, Colorado, where I shall join the team at Unreasonable Institute. Excited! <div>Also, apparently, I am making history: I am the first fellow ever in UR's history to arrive by bus :P </div> <div><br></div><div>Also, in another first, this is my first initiation into Riding the Hound. </div><div>I have been warned: But hey, I've been a regular long distance bus traveler in India - can't get a better education than that! </div> <div><br></div><div>Can handle uncertainty - check</div><div>Can handle random schedule changes - check</div><div>Can keep an eye on luggage at all time - check</div><div>(not that I have much to keep an eye on!)</div><div> Can sit for hours in tight cramped spaces - check</div><div>Can rough it when needed - check</div><div><br></div><div>All my bags are packed and I'm ready to go. No jet plane, but a hound...<br clear="all"><br><br> </div> Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-31788576093736883892011-06-02T07:43:00.001-07:002011-06-02T07:43:47.335-07:00ANOTHER change of toneWell, turns out there's not much funny about the IIM FPM! :P ...<br>Also, I am traveling about at present, so have decided to convert this<br>into a travel log of sorts.<p>Will be posting periodically from various places in the US (some<br>random, others not. All posts, however, will be random).<br>Most of the time, will be using my kindle to post. So brevity shall be<br>the soul of wit from here on...<br>:)Myshkinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06589305461689515908noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-87558953851794503452011-03-29T15:43:00.000-07:002011-03-29T15:45:05.841-07:00Change of ToneI'm back. <br />I've decided to bring this blog back. Except that there is going to be a change in tone. From now on, it's going to be more "observational humour" - if not my own, then contributed by folks at IIM still in the program.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-31833984674907335182010-12-11T00:28:00.001-08:002010-12-11T00:29:18.906-08:00I am movingI am relocating to my micro blog at my <a href="http://www.myshk.in/blog ">homepage</a><br /><br />Interesting as it has been to write long(ish!) posts on here, my new job does not give me time to do the same anymore. Besides, I have kind of bought into the whole Less is More philosophy.<br /><br />So cya all at http://www.myshk.in/blogAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-63090957253051170312010-01-08T04:01:00.000-08:002010-01-08T04:06:40.681-08:00An UpdateI have been guilty of not thinking too much about the repercussions of my initial findings in Wikipedia's network analysis, covered by my doctoral work. This was a natural consequence of a very interesting project called "The Copenhagen Wheel" that I was collaborating on, with the SENSEable City Lab at MIT. However, I believe it is important that I carry forward the train of thought I had begun with my findings from Cebuano Wikipedia. Towards this end, I have been running the same process on the revision history dataset of the Bosnian Wikipedia. Why Bosnian? Well, apart from being relatively easy for me to process on the fly, I was genuinely curious as to how volatile external conditions would affect the interaction network structure. As it stands, I believe the structure is remarkable similar to that of the Cebuano Wikipedia. I am not sure whether this is entirely a good thing, as far as my expectations go. Differences would have been interesting! BUT I need to do some more analysis to find out for sure. Will post up the results soon. <br /><br />...oh, and 2010 is here!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-76844461632437300542009-05-20T04:14:00.000-07:002009-05-20T05:23:02.488-07:00Social Computing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_t_Ht8o0moHY/ShPw3bxQ0SI/AAAAAAAAAUI/UZcS9pLb_SQ/s1600-h/untitled.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 362px; height: 131px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_t_Ht8o0moHY/ShPw3bxQ0SI/AAAAAAAAAUI/UZcS9pLb_SQ/s320/untitled.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5337874818502021410" border="0" /></a>
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<br /></span><meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 10"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMYSHKI%7E1.TOT%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="Edit-Time-Data" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMYSHKI%7E1.TOT%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_editdata.mso"><!--[if !mso]> <style> v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);} .shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);} </style> <![endif]--><span style="font-size:100%;"><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="place"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceType"></o:smarttagtype><o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name="PlaceName"></o:smarttagtype><b style=""><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" ><o:p></o:p></span></b></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if !mso]><object classid="clsid:38481807-CA0E-42D2-BF39-B33AF135CC4D" id="ieooui"></object> <style> st1\:*{behavior:url(#ieooui) } </style> <![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Font Definitions */ @font-face {font-family:+mn-ea; panose-1:0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:roman; mso-font-format:other; mso-font-pitch:auto; mso-font-signature:0 0 0 0 0 0;} @font-face {font-family:Calibri; mso-font-alt:"Century Gothic"; mso-font-charset:0; mso-generic-font-family:swiss; mso-font-pitch:variable; mso-font-signature:-1610611985 1073750139 0 0 159 0;} /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin-top:0in; margin-right:0in; margin-bottom:10.0pt; margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman";} </style> <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapedefaults ext="edit" spidmax="1036"> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <o:shapelayout ext="edit"> <o:idmap ext="edit" data="1"> </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" >
<br /></span></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" >
<br /></span></i></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center; line-height: 200%;" align="center"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style=""><i style=""><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" > “Social computing is the use of technology in networked communication systems by communities of people for one or more goals.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >In the spirit of social computing itself, the above definition was agreed upon by a consensus building process at the Social Computing Group & Transliteracies Project at the </span><span style="font-size:100%;"><st1:place><st1:placetype><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" >University</span></st1:placetype><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" > of </span><st1:placename><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" >California</span></st1:placename></st1:place></span><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >. As with a Wikipedia article, ‘Social Computing’ definitions are malleable – they may change with time, with technology and its new application, within changing socio-cultural contexts, in sync with the society that defines them. While the term ‘social computing’ has more than one definition, and is constantly evolving in context and scope, it is useful to begin with the very roots of the concept: <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"><b style=""><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";" >Social computing begins with the observation that humans are profoundly social.</span></b></span><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >From birth humans orient to one another, and as they grow they develop abilities for interacting with one another ranging from expression and gesture to spoken and written language.<span style=""> </span>Different fields of scientific enquiry, ranging from sociology to anthropology to philosophy have addressed the large issue of how these diverse interactions shape<span style=""> </span>- and are shaped by – our perception of - <i style="">knowledge</i> of - reality.<span style=""> </span>Technology – such as today’s computer tools -<span style=""> </span>may be seen to act as an intermediary, as a moderator, as an enabler, as a tool. Fundamentally though, the process by which humans ‘make sense’ of the world, construct knowledge of the world around them and within them, is social in nature. This activity through which collective human actions organize knowledge has often been referred to as ‘Social Information Processing’ – It is the creation and processing of information into ‘knowledge’ by a group of people. One particular characteristic of this activity is the emergence of what has been termed as ‘collective intelligence’, from the<span style=""> </span>information processing power of networked social systems.<span style=""> </span>This ‘collective intelligence’ emphasizes that as a whole, the networked social system creates its own ‘knowledge’ in a way that no single isolated unit within it could, and proceeds to collectively act on it (Levy, 2001). Tribes of hunter-gatherers, nations, and modern corporations all act collectively with varying degrees of intelligence. And, from some perspectives, even collections of bacteria, bees, or baboons can also be viewed as collectively intelligent (Bloom 1995).<span style=""> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >From this perspective, Social Computing<span style=""> </span>research focuses on methods for harvesting the collective intelligence of groups of people (“wisdom of the crowd”) in order to realize greater value from the interaction between users and information.<span style=""> </span>In recent times, the social potential of computer networks has come to the fore through the rapid development of such network applications as wikis, blogs, social networking sites, social bookmarking sites, and online collaborative editing suites that encourage people to engage in collective resource-building, action, and work.<span style=""> </span>People are interacting more often and in more ways than ever before in human history (Malone 2004). These developments of the last decade have aroused tremendous interest in this field. Are we seeing merely an amplification, an acceleration of activities that have existed since time immemorial, or are we witnessing the birth of something completely new?<span style=""> </span>Is this an ancient phenomenon now occurring in dramatically new forms, or is it something fundamentally different?<span style=""> </span>As the underlying technologies continue to advance forward, it is more important than ever for us to understand collective intelligence at a deep level so we can create and take advantage of these new possibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >Research on Social Computing is by its nature, interdisciplinary. Along with the broad canvas of sociology, psychology, anthropology and cultural studies, social computing researchers have been studying the dynamics of interaction mediated typically by computer tools<span style=""> </span>such as:<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Authoring tools: e.g., blogs<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Collaboration tools: e.g., wikis, in particular, e.g., Wikipedia<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Tagging systems (social bookmarking): e.g., del.icio.us, Flickr, CiteULike<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Social networking: e.g., Facebook, MySpace, Essembly<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Collaborative filtering: e.g., Digg, the Amazon Mechanical Turk, Yahoo answers<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" ><span style=""> </span>* Social Information Aggregation: e.g., scratchmysoul.com<o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >While these tools and the ‘knowledge’ artifacts they have helped produce (large, complex encyclopedias to diverse, fine-grained folksonomies) are certainly impressive, it must be remembered that although computers are often used to facilitate networking and collaboration, they are not always required. For example the “Trictionary”, a collaboratively generated 400-page trilingual English/Spanish/Chinese translation wordbook, in 1982 was entirely paper and pen based, relying on neighborhood social networks and libraries. The creation of the Oxford English Dictionary in the 19th century was done largely with the help of anonymous volunteers organized by help wanted advertisements in newspapers and slips of paper sent through the postal mail.<span style=""> </span>That having been said, it is notable that modern societies, with information and communication technologies, are vastly better at collective cognition than earlier ones. The degree of organization, and its precision, which we take for granted would have been astonishing for even the in- habitants of the most advanced societies of previous centuries. Historians have explored some of the technical and institutional underpinnings of these organizational revolutions (McNeill 1982; Beniger 1986; Yates 1989), but at a deeper level we have little idea of the mechanics, or why what we do works (when it does work!), and what role information and communication technologies play. On large scales, market economies, corporations and other bureaucracies, scientific disciplines, and democratic polities all have something of this collective information-processing character. Knowing how they accomplish this would be deeply rewarding, and, if that understanding can be used to make them work better, of profound economic and political importance. A frontal assault on this problem, as represented by one of those grand institutions, is unlikely to succeed (though, as Shalizi, 2007 points out- it may be a magnificent failure!) Fortunately, social information processing also occurs in much humbler institutions, such as tagging systems and collaborative filtering, where issues of data collection and even experimental manipulation are much more manageable, and where we might hope to learn more, before tackling the fundamental problems of social science. <o:p></o:p></span></p> <p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%;"><span style="line-height: 200%;font-family:";font-size:100%;" >The research focus of my thesis,<span style=""> </span>therefore, is predominantly on the ‘social’ aspect of social computing, and on the interplay between social interactions and technology, rather than the technology alone. <o:p></o:p></span></p> Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-12817492915813568452009-05-15T02:40:00.000-07:002009-05-15T02:45:24.974-07:00Conference TimeMy papers at both AMCIS 2009 and PACIS 2009 have been accepted. It's always nice to receive external validation and constructive feedback for one's ideas. I was really impressed with the depth of some of the reviewers' analysis: Really a lot of time and effort had gone into them. As a result, I got some interesting insights on the papers, and can possibly incorporate these in my next work.<br /><br />Apart from the utility of the comments, I have of course got a sudden 'happy adrenalin' rush because of 2 acceptances on the trot (I seem to recollect a particularly funny phdcomics strip about this a while ago!) and am really looking forward to hobnobbing with some of the big names in my field at the conferences, getting more ideas.<br /><br />And of course, free food!! :PAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-31036480593227042352009-04-21T04:08:00.000-07:002009-04-21T04:16:36.170-07:00This is a very important time for yours truly, as some things are ending and others are beginning.<br /><br />The going in April has been good so far. I have got some incredibly detailed and helpful reviews for my <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/myshkinonline/Home/research-and-publications">paper</a> on Small Worlds in Wikipedia from AMCIS. I have in mind a more in-depth and comprehensive article, which I hope to get around to putting to paper shortly ( new things!) , using some of my results and the new feedback from the conference.<br /><br />The old things that are ending might well include my time at IIM Calcutta, as I make my transition from a PhD student into _____ .<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />I guess by May, the blank would be filled. </span>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-36716369070167363342009-03-18T04:31:00.000-07:002009-03-18T04:35:08.506-07:00A ResolutionMuch inspired by <a href="http://phizzledizzle.blogspot.com/">PhizzleDizzle</a> , I also am setting an ambitious but attainable deadline.<br />1 April is the date by which I shall have finished the first version of my Thesis.<br /><br /><br />So there then, there it is, in writing. Hopefully now, schedule pressure will act its magic.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-79746141854580726002009-03-04T23:50:00.001-08:002009-03-16T15:34:16.005-07:00An UpdateI have not been posting regularly for the past few weeks, on account of feeling the whooshing sound of deadlines going by.<br />Thankfully, I have been able to meet the dates for the<a href="http://www.isb.edu/citne/pacis2009/"> </a><a href="http://www.isb.edu/citne/pacis2009/">PACIS 2009</a> and <a href="http://meeting.aomonline.org/2009/">AMCIS 2009</a>.<br />I already had a fair number of things to say about Collaborative Knowledge Creation in general and Wikipedia in particular, based on the findings of my longitudinal network analysis studies of different language Wikipedias. (Abstracts uploaded <a href="http://sites.google.com/site/myshkinonline/Home/research-and-publications">here</a> )<br />I will put up the full papers shortly, as soon as the review process concludes.<br /><br />Meanwhile, here's one of the visualizations from my network analysis of the interaction graphs of Cebuano Wikipedias. More shortly (one more deadline coming up the hill!)<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t_Ht8o0moHY/Sa-H_aaRI9I/AAAAAAAAARU/ejY4XNs6cbg/s1600-h/cebuano.JPG"><img style="margin: 0pt 10px 10px 0pt; float: left; cursor: pointer; width: 319px; height: 320px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_t_Ht8o0moHY/Sa-H_aaRI9I/AAAAAAAAARU/ejY4XNs6cbg/s320/cebuano.JPG" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5309612009184109522" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_t_Ht8o0moHY/Sa-F0amcQNI/AAAAAAAAARM/z3ZSHj3u6Nw/s1600-h/1.jpg"><br /></a>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-76073467637361148012009-01-13T06:03:00.001-08:002009-03-05T00:11:18.855-08:00Writers BlockI have abount 3 interesting points to make. At this stage, I am<br />a) Gripped by Writers Block - how and where do I start to communicate my points?<br />b) Not entirely certain I can bake my half baked points. To make sense, I need first to clear things up in my mind.<br />c) I can't remember the 3rd point. (There's an attempt at irony/humor in there somewhere!)<br /><br />The AoM general meeting deadline is coming up, and I really should have been done with my draft a while ago....<br />Oh well, here's hoping last min pressures work again, as they have in the past ...:)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-17189200750033291402009-01-07T07:12:00.000-08:002009-01-07T07:18:40.142-08:00Wikipedia and Agent Based ModelingThis is something that I had been meaning to do for a while.<br />I even penned down some of my thoughts on how ABM made sense for understanding Wikipedia:<br /><br />http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1458550.1458565<br /><strong>Understanding the wikipedia phenomenon</strong><strong>: a case for agent based modeling</strong><br />Abstract:<br />"Wikipedia, the user led and monitored "open" encyclopedia has been an undoubted popular success. Of particular interest are the diffusion process of the innovation throughout the "contributor" community, and the question as to why unpaid, often well qualified, volunteers contribute content and time. Explanations for 'altruistic' contributor behavior based on the positivistic paradigm, and with roots in organizational psychology, while heavily researched and documented, have not been readily transferable to quantitative models of sufficient predictive value, in relation to Wikipedia's metrics. For despite the wide range of types, ages, locations and motivations of its contributors and seekers, investigators on Wikipedia have identified certain definite and often surprisingly universal trends ('laws') in its overall growth curve, organization structure, community and article formation. Models based on aggregated top-level relationships between entities on and around wikipedia suffer from assuming relationships between these entities as <i>inputs</i> to the wikipedia process, rather than emergent phenomena that evolve and change with the output. We argue for an Agent Based Model of Wikipedia, with the end objective of our work being a tool with diagnostic and/or prescriptive value for decision makers in organizations using or planning to use Knowledge Management Systems."<br /><br /><br />However, ultimately, I think it would still be difficult to make a clear case for the rationale, especially since ABM would only give me 2nd order predictions.<br /><br />I've since then managed to bark up the right (hopefully!) tree. Have some interesting findings...<br />Will post lots more on that soon.<br /><br />...deadlines are making a whooshing sound....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-54149822419336740172008-07-29T03:42:00.000-07:002008-07-29T03:43:18.882-07:00Wikipedia's KittensJust found a great blog<br />http://wikip.blogspot.com/search/label/sociology<br /><br />Quoting:<br /><br />"....a generalized unit of contributor motivation called a <i>kitten</i>.<br /><br /><code>1 kitten = the amount of motivation needed to get 1 person to spend 1 minute trying to improve an article</code><br /><br />We can say, quite literally, that Wikipedia runs on kittens. In fact, entrepreneurs discover this every day when they try to start a "crowdsourcing" site and nobody shows up. So, what generates kittens? Foremost, it's the possibility of someone else learning from what you wrote -- <b>not just immediately, but at any time in the future</b>"<br /><br />Kittens are born when there is a perception that the words one write will survive for some time.... something like this, to go by<br /><br />Number of views on a given day = (Number of views per day).(Chance of surviving one day) ^ (Number of Days that have passed)<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://benyates.info/wiki100years.png"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 320px;" src="http://benyates.info/wiki100years.png" alt="" border="0" /></a>With a 1-in-ten-thousand chance of being destroyed each day, the article will rack up exactly <b>seven million views</b> over its lifetime.<br /><br /><br />Like the author says - thats a LOT of kittens!<br /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Myshkin/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot.jpg" alt="" /><img src="file:///C:/DOCUME%7E1/Myshkin/LOCALS%7E1/Temp/moz-screenshot-1.jpg" alt="" />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-16395304108029311182008-07-25T03:05:00.000-07:002008-07-25T03:06:00.942-07:00Why Wikipedia Succeeded<span style="font-weight: bold;"></span><br />Larry Sanger (Wikipedia's cofounder)'s take on why Wikipedia succeeded.<br />Although rather old (2005), the feature has some great insights.<br /><br /><a href="http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95"><b>http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/04/19/1746205&tid=95</b></a><br /><br /><br />In short, these are the factors<br /><ol><li> <em>Open content license.</em> We promised contributors that their work would always remain free for others to read. This, as is well known, motivates people to work for the good of the world--and for the many people who would like to teach the whole world, that's a pretty strong motivation.</li><li> <em>Focus on the encyclopedia.</em> We said that we were creating an encyclopedia, not a dictionary, etc., and we encouraged people to stick to creating the encyclopedia and not use the project as a debate forum.</li><li> <em>Openness.</em> Anyone could contribute. Everyone was specifically made to feel welcome. (E.g., we encouraged the habit of writing on new contributors' user pages, "Welcome to Wikipedia!" etc.) There was no sense that someone would be turned away for not being bright enough, or not being a good enough writer, or whatever.</li><li> <em>Ease of editing.</em> Wikis are pretty easy for most people to figure out. In other collaborative systems (like Nupedia), you have to learn all about the system first. Wikipedia had an almost flat learning curve.</li><li> <em>Collaborate radically; don't sign articles.</em> Radical collaboration, in which (in principle) anyone can edit any part of anyone else's work, is one of the great innovations of the open source software movement. On Wikipedia, radical collaboration made it possible for work to move forward on all fronts at the same time, to avoid the big bottleneck that is the individual author, and to burnish articles on popular topics to a fine luster.</li><li> <em>Offer unedited, unapproved content for further development.</em> This is required if one wishes to collaborate radically. We encouraged putting up their unfinished drafts--as long as they were at least roughly correct--with the idea that they can only improve if there are others collaborating. This is a classic principle of open source software. It helped get Wikipedia started and helped keep it moving. This is why so many original drafts of Wikipedia articles were basically garbage (no offense to anyone--some of my own drafts were sometimes garbage), and also why it is <em>surprising</em> to the uninitiated that many articles have turned out very well indeed.</li><li> <em>Neutrality.</em> A firm neutrality policy made it possible for people of widely divergent opinions to work together, without constantly fighting. It's a way to keep the peace.</li><li> <em>Start with a core of good people.</em> I think it was essential that we began the project with a core group of intelligent good writers who understood what an encyclopedia should look like, and who were basically decent human beings.</li><li> <em>Enjoy the Google effect.</em> We had little to do with this, but had Google not sent us an increasing amount of traffic each time they spidered the growing website, we would not have grown nearly as fast as we did. (See below.)</li></ol>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1104232100361561101.post-43606653602479843832008-07-24T06:11:00.000-07:002008-07-24T06:13:06.208-07:00Defining KnowledgeCame across this quite elucidating (yes, I've used the word "elucidating"!) definition, explanation about Knowledge...<br /><br />http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/kmgmt.htm<br /><br />"<br /><ul><ul><li>A collection of data is not information. </li><li>A collection of information is not knowledge. </li><li>A collection of knowledge is not wisdom. </li><li>A collection of wisdom is not truth. </li></ul></ul> <p><img src="http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/graphics/dikw.gif" naturalsizeflag="3" width="293" align="right" border="0" height="210" />The idea is that information, knowledge, and wisdom are more than simply collections. Rather, the whole represents more than the sum of its parts and has a synergy of its own.</p> <p>We begin with data, which is just a meaningless point in space and time, without reference to either space or time. It is like an event out of context, a letter out of context, a word out of context. The key concept here being "out of context." And, since it is out of context, it is without a meaningful relation to anything else. When we encounter a piece of data, if it gets our attention at all, our first action is usually to attempt to find a way to attribute meaning to it. We do this by associating it with other things. If I see the number 5, I can immediately associate it with cardinal numbers and relate it to being greater than 4 and less than 6, whether this was implied by this particular instance or not. If I see a single word, such as "time," there is a tendency to immediately form associations with previous contexts within which I have found "time" to be meaningful. This might be, "being on time," "a stitch in time saves nine," "time never stops," etc. The implication here is that when there is no context, there is little or no meaning. So, we create context but, more often than not, that context is somewhat akin to conjecture, yet it fabricates meaning."</p>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0