Advancing The Science of Networks in Communities
On November 15th, 2017, Noshir presented at the Educational Technology and Computational Psychometrics Symposium organized by ACTNext: the Research, Development and Business Innovation Center at ACT, Iowa City.
Noshir’s talk was titled Some Assembly Required: Collaboration in the 21st Century.
On October 27th, 2017, Noshir gave a talk at the Case Western Weatherhead School of Management’s Interdepartmental Research Seminar (jointly sponsored by Design & Innovation and Organizational Behavior).
He presented on Leveraging Computational Social Science to Address Grand Societal Challenges.
On October 11th, 2017, Noshir co-chaired a National Academies of Science Workshop in Washington, D.C. on Leveraging Advances in Social Network Thinking for National Security.
On October 10th, Noshir gave a welcome and plenary talk at the ATLC2017: Atlanta conference on science and innovation policy.
This September, Noshir Contractor was invited to present at the Conference on Complex Systems 2017 in Cancun, Mexico.
On September 19th, Noshir presented on Leveraging Computational Social Science to address Grand Societal Challenges ( abstract ) in a session titled “Socio-Ecological Systems (SES) – Social Systems and Human Interactions.”
A recent study investigated a new way to identify the strength of ties. Using two different large datasets, the researchers found that for each pair of individuals, a bow tie structure of the network itself is strongly associated with the strength of ties between them that the researchers measure in other ways.
The abstract of the paper is as follows: Understanding tie strength in social networks, and the factors that influence it, have received much attention in a myriad of disciplines for decades. Several models incorporating indicators of tie strength have been proposed and used to quantify relationships in social networks, and a standard set of structural network metrics have been applied to predominantly online social media sites to predict tie strength. Here, we introduce the concept of the “social bow tie” framework, a small subgraph of the network that consists of a collection of nodes and ties that surround a tie of interest, forming a topological structure that resembles a bow tie. We also define several intuitive and interpretable metrics that quantify properties of the bow tie. We use random forests and regression models to predict categorical and continuous measures of tie strength from different properties of the bow tie, including nodal attributes. We also investigate what aspects of the bow tie are most predictive of tie strength in two distinct social networks: a collection of 75 rural villages in India and a nationwide call network of European mobile phone users. Our results indicate several of the bow tie metrics are highly predictive of tie strength, and we find the more the social circles of two individuals overlap, the stronger their tie, consistent with previous findings. However, we also find that the more tightly-knit their non-overlapping social circles, the weaker the tie. This new finding complements our current understanding of what drives the strength of ties in social networks.
A link to the paper: https://arxiv.org/abs/1710.04177
A link to a news article for the paper: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/609146/how-close-are-you-really/
by Josué Ortega and Philipp Hergovich
We used to marry people to which we were somehow connected to: friends of friends, schoolmates, neighbors. Since we were more connected to people similar to us, we were likely to marry someone from our own race.
However, online dating has changed this pattern: people who meet online tend to be complete strangers. Given that one-third of modern marriages start online, the authors investigate theoretically, using random graphs and matching theory, the effects of those previously absent ties in the diversity of modern societies.
The authors find that when a society benefits from previously absent ties, social integration occurs rapidly, even if the number of partners met online is small. Their findings are consistent with the sharp increase in interracial marriages in the U.S. in the last two decades.
Read the full article here.
On October 18, 2017, Noshir presented at the Sciences Po conference organized by the Centre de Sociologie des Organisations in Paris, France.
The title of his talk was Some assembly required: Leveraging computational social science to understand and enable team assembly.
The SONIC Speaker Series presents
College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs, University of Illinois at Chicago
SONIC Lab is proud to welcome Michael D. Siciliano of the Univeristy of Illinois at Chicago. Prof. Siciliano speak on Monday, November 13, 2017 at 10:00 AM in Frances Searle Building, Room 1-489. Please contact Dr. Michael Schultz with any questions.
Abstract:
How do institutional changes affect micro-level behaviors? International agreements such as the Nagoya and Cartagena Protocols of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) are resulting in new policy institutions that regulate the global exchange and use of biological materials in research. These rules are shifting the locus of control over materials from individual researchers to institutions that represent stakeholder interests. Traditionally, material resource exchange occurs within social networks that link scientists with other scientists and with provider organizations. In this new context of contested resources, access to and exchange of biological materials are jointly determined by personal networks and the new authority structures that govern the exchange relationships within the networks. Relying on a nationally representative sample of scientists in the United States, this talk explores how institutional controls on resource inputs affect collaboration structures and science production.
Stream the talk here:
The SONIC Speaker Series presents
D’Amore-McKim School of Business, Northeastern University
SONIC Lab is proud to welcome Christoph Riedl of the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. Prof. Riedl will present a talk on Monday, October 23, 2017 at 10:00 AM in Frances Searle Building, Room 1-489. Please contact Michael Schultz with any questions.
Abstract:
In most areas of human performance, the path to major accomplishments requires a steep learning curve, long practice and many trials. Athletes go through years of training and compete repeatedly before setting new records; musicians practice from an early age and perform in secondary venues before earning the spotlight. Yet, little is known about the quantitative patterns that lead to success in creative fields. In this talk we provide a quantitative framework to describe the evolution of success in artistic careers, and ask: Is the success of a particular artist predictable? Are there network measures that improve our understanding of success? We focus on trajectories followed by visual artists through a network of galleries and museums, and show that the prestige of institutions, quantified through network measures, fully determines an artist’s future success. Starting in prestigious venues increases the chance of exhibiting in more venues, appealing to a more international audience, and of being successful in the auction market.
Christoph Riedl is the Joseph G. Riesman Research assistant professor for Information Systems at the D’Amore-McKim School of Business at Northeastern University. He hold a joint appointment with the College of Computer & Information Science and is a core faculty at the Network Science Institute. He is a fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University. He is recipient of a Young Investigator Award (YIP) from Army Research Office (ARO) for his work on social networks in collaborative decision-making. Before joining Northeastern University he was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard Business School and IQSS. He received a PhD in Information Systems from Technische Universität München (TUM), Germany in 2011, a MSc in Information Systems in 2007, and a BSc in Computer Science in 2006. His work has been funded by NSF and published in leading journals including Management Science, Information Systems Research, and Academy of Management Discoveries.