Six Degrees: The New Science of Networks

Assignments

Both mid-term and final exams will be open-book, in-class exams. The questions will be drawn both from the readings and the lectures, and will generally require short written responses of a few sentences, or at most a paragraph or two.The questions are not designed to be hard: they will concern the core concepts of the course, not marginal topics, and can be answered using only the materials outlined in the syllabus.As such, they should be straightforward for anyone who has attended the lectures and carefully read the relevant material.In addition, you will be allowed to bring your readings and lecture notes to the exam, and refer to them if you need to refresh your memory. Therefore anyone who has worked consistently throughout the semester should do well. However, anyone who has not attended classes consistently or read the corresponding materials will have difficulty completing the exam in the allotted time, open-book policy notwithstanding. (Any students with registered learning disabilities that require extra time for exams should contact the instructor to make the appropriate arrangements.)

Mid-term exam will be held during class, Thursday, March 9. Final exam will be held during the exam week, May 6-13 (day/time/location TBA).

Purpose:A central objective of this course is to help you to think about real-world social, cultural, economic, organizational, ecological, and technological problems in a different way. To this end, instead of a term paper, you will be required to submit at the end of the semester, a "scrap book" of annotated clippings from the media. This project is not meant to be arduous - in fact, it is intended to be fun - and you can approach it in many different ways. The main objectives are (a) to encourage you to keep abreast of current events, as well as contemporary ideas and trends; and (b) to help you take the concepts of the course out of the classroom and use them to interpret the world around you.

Sources:You may draw on whatever sources you choose, including newspapers, magazines, TV, Radio, and the web. News stories, science reports, business analysis, feature articles, book reviews, commentary, editorials, advertising, web-logs, discussion groups, and even email threads are all eligible for inclusion - the only constraints are (a) they must have appeared/occurred during the semester (i.e. between Jan 18 and May 5 2006); and (b) they can be compiled and rendered as a single paper document (although if you have creative ideas about digital or audio presentations, I'm prepared to consider them).

Topics:While some of the topics in the syllabus seem a little abstract on first inspection, you may be surprised at how often they come up in newspaper articles, talking with friends, or simply walking around town. You can include anything that seems relevant to you (as long as you can explain why). However, here are some suggestions to get you started.

1. Networks and connectivity. Networks are everywhere, including:
1. Social Sciences
1. Acquaintanceship networks
2. Friendship, kinship, advice-seeking
3. Affiliation networks
1. Affiliation by artifact (e.g., Amazon.com)
2. Affiliation by activity (e.g., boards, publications)
3. Affiliation by identity (e.g., beliefs, ethnicity)
4. Economic exchange networks
5. Organizational networks (both between and within organizations)
2. Biological Sciences
1. Disease networks
1. Human-to-human (HIV, Influenza, TB)
2. Vector-borne (Malaria)
3. Environmentally borne (Cholera, Foot-and-Mouth)
2. Food webs
3. Physiological networks
1. Neural
2. Circulatory
3. Immunological
4. Biochemical networks
5. Protein-protein interactions
6. Gene regulation
7. Metabolic reactions
3. Engineering/Technology
1. Power transmission grids
2. The Internet
3. Distribution infrastructures
4. Postal service
5. Transportation networks
1. Road, Rail, Shipping, Air
4. "Information" Networks
1. Software
2. World Wide Web
3. Word nets
2. Businesses or web-sites that exploit ideas about networks. For example, Friendster, Orkut, and Face book all invoke ideas about friendship networks; Epinions and Amazon make use of referral networks (aka "collaborative filtering"); Spoke and Visible Path mine email network data; and MeetUp is designed to create affiliation networks. There are probably lots of others as well.
3. Examples of people influencing each other's behavior, either directly (peer-to-peer influence, word-of-mouth marketing) or indirectly (via social norms, organizational culture, etc.). Voting behavior, consumer behavior, TV watching, etc. are some examples.
4. Examples of surprising social or cultural change, in the sense that the change was unexpected, or previously unnoticed, or otherwise difficult to account for. Fads, fashions, revolutions, and changing social norms or attitudes (towards, for example, gay marriage, national security, corporate malfeasance, foreign aid, obesity, online dating) all fall into this category. Alternatively, prolonged persistence of social norms in the face of concerted efforts to effect change can also be puzzling.
5. Epidemics of disease, both novel (e.g. Avian influenza and SARS), and chronic (e.g. HIV, TB, Malaria).
6. Examples of complex problem solving activities, in which many people and even agencies must collaborate to solve an urgent problem (for example intelligence gathering and assessment, distribution of aid to Tsunami victims, etc.)

Commentary: Each piece, or set of related pieces, that you present in your scrap book should be accompanied by a short (or long) discussion of how and why you think the piece is (a) interesting; (b) relevant; and (c) illuminated by something you have learned in the course. For example, some network concept might help you see that two apparently unrelated news stories, possibly being reported in different sections of the newspaper, actually are different manifestations of the same thing.Or based on what you have learned, you might start to think that the standard policy response to some occurrence is misguided, or informed by faulty intuition. There is no need to restate concepts verbatim, or to apply them narrowly - feel free to use your imagination.Even technical correctness (while encouraged) is less important than the exercise of thinking through familiar problems in new ways, or becoming aware of new questions to be considered.

Length: Length is less important than the discrimination and imagination you display in choosing pieces, and the quality of your own insights. Therefore, there are no specific length requirements for your scrap book. You can choose many articles and make brief comments; or a few articles with extended comments. You can focus on one particular area of application, or span several. Perhaps the best guidance is to read as much as you can, focus on topics you find intriguing, and then think about them a lot. Just remember that this is worth 30% of your grade, so it should represent a serious effort, similar to that you would put into a term paper; that is, you should be reading consistently throughout the semester, and you should spend at least a few solid days putting it all together. Obviously, the more work you do compiling and annotating pieces throughout the semester, the less effort will be required at the last minute.

Note: You will be required to submit an "in-progress" collection of your clippings on the last class before spring break (Thursday, 3/9). These clippings do not need to be annotated, nor should they represent a complete collection - the requirement is solely to prevent you from leaving the collection exercise to the last minute. The collections will be returned to you.

In order to facilitate your collection of news stories, etc., you will be encouraged to bring them to class, or else discuss your recollection of them. There will not be any specified format for these discussions, except the general question: What did you read/see/hear in the last few days (not including assigned readings) that you think is relevant to this class, and why do you think it's relevant? The emphasis is on what you think, not on what you think I want you to think.