World change
I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about how technology is changing our world, and what impacts that will have on the presentation and delivery of education. Here is an outline of some of my recent thoughts:
Archive for January, 2005
Networks — Part 2
Here is a little more on the Science of Networks. These points stuck with me:
The Internet is not randomly formed. If it was, most nodes, or websites, would have a similar number of connections to other nodes. But the Internet has connectors, a relatively small number of nodes that have a large number of connections to other nodes. Most nodes have few connections, but these few have many. This is often described as the 80:20 rule. 80% of the links are held by 20% of the nodes.
Studying Networks
I’ve been working my way through the audiobook version of Albert-László Barabási’s book, Linked: The New Science of Networks . Pretty cool stuff, and surprising how recently we have started to understand how complex networks, like the Internet, come to be. Barabasi manages to range his examples from the rise of early Christendom to the six degrees of Kevin Bacon, to understanding how the Internet forms. The discussion is a little dense at times, but overall there are a lot of really interesting concepts. I have read nothing of network theory up until now, so it was a real eye opener, and gives me a new perspective to how the networks that make up our world function.
Flickr
Ethan and I took a walk this morning and here is what we saw! Check out the rest of our walk in our new flickr page.
Keeping the media honest with podcasting
This is an interesting article on several levels. First this is a commentary based upon an interview with UserLand Software CEO Scott Young. That interview is offered as part of ZDNet’s podcasts, and the article references the time code of the interviews mp3, so the reader can cross reference what Young actually said with the representation in the article. A very interesting way to offer several layers of information.
Book References
I have mentioned several books over the last several weeks. Here are some links to find out more about them on Amazon.com
Rushkoff: Playing the Future
Malcolm Gladwell’s books
Society of the Mind cyberthriller
