Dr.Blog

2002-12-10T02:35:00.000-08:00

The Problem:

As our current research has proved, Google cannot understand exactly what the user is searching for simply from a "keyword" search and
many users do not have the knowledge of search engine functionality to further define their search. What happens is
that google is returing many pages that have no relevance to the users query. As well, basing those results on a powerlaw
determined by link popularity is only making a portion of the web accessable...sites are not chosen by relevance to
the query but by the populairty of site.

Our Current Knowledge Base of Google Extracted from our Experiements and Realizations:

Ron's Weblog:

Keyword Experiment: Using Keywords Ron's weblog received a high placement within the rankings of google.
Chosen Keyword: hotdealsclub
Realization: That his weblog had nothing to do with his keyword search yet google still ranked his
page very high. This tells us that the current keyword search google implements does not provide the
user with relevant information simply based on keywords.

Basic research on how a google search functions.

Marwan's Weblog:

Research on Google and Barabasi:

Realizations:
- Google follows a rich get richer scheme and is a power law
- The importance of link popularity in a google search.
- Current form of google limits the amount of sites being seen which is directly related to the
current architecture of a google keyword search.

My Weblog:

Link Popularity Experiment: Monitored the ranking and link popularity of 4 websites under the same keyword: Fitness.
The goal was to see how link popularity affected a google keyword search and the importance it played
in the overall ranking system.
Realization: That in order for the user to receive relevant information as well as be able to access
more of the web, google must break the rich get richer scheme they employ and also move away from their
current system of a "keyword search".

Research which backs up the realization from the link popularity experiment

Connections between weblogs and our new concept of the "topic search engine" which will enhance googles
current functionality and relevance.

2002-12-10T02:34:00.000-08:00

Solution:

Using our previous experiements and research as our knowledge base we plan to create a complex system
that could be incorporated into google to enhance their keyword search capabilities. This complex System
is called a "topic Search Engine" which will allow the "keyword search" to direct the search rather
than basing the whole search on the keywords themselves. These "topic SE's" are based on the idea of the weblog;
a weblog can be viewed as a catalog of topic specific links and information. Millions of these weblogs are connected
forming a complex system of weblogs. Our idea is to use this concept of the weblog and the weblog system to connect
millions of topic specific se's which cover all aspects of specific topics and contain links to those aspects of the topic.
When a user inputs their keywords the keywords are analysed and separated into topics, the corresponding topic se's will then
look at the words and make connections amongst themselves. The user may be asked questions about a topic by a topic se to the the
engine a better understanding of what the user is looking for. After the all topic se's understand the query they then sort through
their catalogs of topic specific links and make matches to the query. The user is then presented with links that will match the
intended query of their keyword search. The advantage these topic se's contribute to the google system is help google understand
what the user is REALLY searching for. This in turn will provide the user with very RELEVANT information as well as open up more
of the web since the engine would then be based on relevance not popularity.

Goal for the end of the module:

To create a map of how this complex system of Topic SE's will work and how they will fit into the current architecture of a
google keyword search. This will provide us with a visual understanding of our proposed solution to our identified problem.

2002-12-08T19:26:00.000-08:00

"Putting it Together: Google loves Weblogs

Weblogs are perfect for Google: frequently updated websites crammed chockfull of tasty links. It's no wonder that Google loves Weblogs so much.

Of course, if that's the case, why doesn't every Google search land the searcher on a blog? That question underscores a crucial point about weblogs and Google: weblogs are the voters in this political system. In other words, weblogs don't get elected by Google... but the sites they voted for do.

So even if you never visit a blog, you're being influenced by them. The collective votes of the weblog community are determing what sites you see on Google, the world's largest search engine."

My last post discussed about moving to topic searching rather than keywords, here its clear that weblogs can act as a tool that enhances google and actually makes this shift happen. Weblogs are generally related to a specific topic, the links and information located on a weblog must also relate to the topic in some way or another. Then weblogs can act as sort of a search engine themselves...but what if they actually were search engines? Weblogs are a collection of related links to a topic...google can search them by these topics and the links connected to them...if "topic based search engines" were created that were as focused as weblogs about certain topics and they were as detailed and used as a transition from google to your final search your search would be topic dependent rather than keyword and link dependent. So....I am going map characteristics of weblogs onto "topic search engines" that google can use in transtion from the original keyword search to the final presentation of links. Right now im not sure how to structure this system as a total search but i know where this idea fits into the whole search picture! I'll keep ya posted...for now use the concept of the weblog to envision how a topic search engine might function.

Possible Example of Functionality:

After keywords are searched on google a topic SE or multiple topic SE's would be contacted to assist the search. These topic SE would know all possible scenario's of how those keywords could be used, for example, if the user inputted "car" as a keyword the topic SE would know that cars can be bought, sold, traded, that they can be new and old ect...just basically everything about cars. The user may then be presented with another window which would help them get a more relevant search by asking a question or questions about the keywords or presenting those keyword based scenario's. Depending on how many keywords are inputted and how many of those keywords are considered separate topics would determine the amount of topic SE's involved. If more that one is involved both topic SE's would be in dialog with eachother both developing possible search scenario's. After the search has been further defined the topic SE would have all relevant sites catagorized by those scenario's and could then really deliver relevant sites to the user. By getting this specifc with the user's search the use of link popularity would not be applicable because one of main purposes behind that idea is the site must have lots of good information about a topic because many other sites about a topic are linked to it. With this method, keywords are considered as topics and like the weblog are truely focused and knowledgable about those topics. Having only one SE to match queries to keywords contained in every site in the world is a little too general to say the least.

2002-12-08T19:07:00.000-08:00

What's the toughest part of improving searching?

"I think the hardest issue is determining what the user really wants, figuring out, when someone types in "car," whether he wants used cars. Does he want the Kelley Blue Book? Or does he want to buy a car? Understanding better what users want -- that's the hardest challenge. When a query is a little bit more specific -- take, for example, "car repair Palo Alto" -- then we can say, OK now, we sort of understand. But we're still not 100 percent sure. Does he just want different car repair places? Or does he want the one closest to his house? We do know that we should make sure not to return a page that's a report about a trip to California and then they had to have their car repaired in Palo Alto. You can try to return documents that are specifically on this topic. We're developing more sophisticated techniques to return documents that might not mention the query words, but are [still relevant to] the topic. We're getting away from just pure word matches and getting more into topics."

The last part of this quote is a very significant step in envisioning a "new" way to search the web...."We're getting away from just pure word matches and getting more into topics." The toughest part about developing an SE is returing pages that the user actually wants which simply using keywords and link popularity won't provide. As seen with my previous experiement, link popularity and link quality play a major role in how google ranks searches...however those pages that made the top 4 are not nearly as relevant nor as good as many sites I visit regularly for my fitness queries. This idea of topic searching really got me thinking about new structures that google could follow as opposed to what they are doing now. People who search on google are looking for something particular in a general sense...although their choice of keywords may not allow them to find what they are looking for. You should not have to be an expert to find what you are looking for, as well the pages returned should not be ranked according to popularity for a number of reasons. First, many people know how to manipulate the SE's meaning that a page could be retured having no interest to the users query at all. Second, just because a page is popular about a specific topic it doesn't mean that the page is what the user is looking for. The car example above is a good scenario.

2002-12-02T17:50:00.000-08:00

A Graph Respresenting the Results from the Google Monitoring Experiment...

The numbers corresponding to each date and placement are current link popularity results from that day. As you can see fitnesslink.com had the most significant increase in google link popularity and also experienced the greatest advancement in rank over the two week period. More about our results later....

2002-12-02T17:06:00.000-08:00

Google Results 12.01.02

Link Popularity Results 12.01.02

2002-12-02T17:05:00.000-08:00

Google Results 11.28.02

Link Popularity Results 11.28.02

2002-12-02T17:04:00.001-08:00

Google Results 11.25.02

Link Popularity Results 11.25.02

2002-12-02T17:04:00.000-08:00

Google Results 11.23.02

Link Popularity Results 11.23.02

2002-12-02T17:03:00.000-08:00

Google Results 11.20.02

Link Popularity Results 11.20.02

2002-12-02T16:14:00.000-08:00

Google Results 11.17.02

This is the first set of results from our Google Monitoring Experiment. The goal of this experiment was to select a certain keyword, in this case I selected "fitness", and to monitor the results from a google search for the first 4 websites over two weeks. As well, I was to monitor the link popularity for the same day and analyze the overall results. The following images you see are screen shots of the results with corresponding dates for each day over this two week period. There are 6 sets of results in total.

Link Popularity Results 11.17.02

2002-11-12T17:23:00.000-08:00

Change in Focus

It looks like I have changed the focus of my weblog, originally I was going to have some focus on fitness and bodybuilding but as it turns out I have related most of these concepts to business in some form or another so my new focus (actually pre-existing) is business now.

2002-11-12T17:06:00.000-08:00

A Problem With My Weblogging

Reflecting back on what I have done in this course to date causes some upset.
I think the greatest problem that I face with my learning in this course so far is using the weblogging format effectively. I know the purpose of the weblog is to collectively help build upon our understanding of the various aspects and characteristics of networks and networked culture which I think was a very creative approach to the whole idea, don’t get me wrong. The problem I have and so do many others is that the weblogs are treated like section conferences with out the discussion afterwards. We are using the weblogs to write down our understanding of the concepts but I don’t really find much integration or discussion which is valuable with online learning. I just make sure that I post about the unit concepts and some research into them that I have done and that’s all. No discussion among any other students….nothing, it’s like a journal. I think this aspect of how the weblogs are being used is very ineffective and rather boring, but that is the way I have been using it because that is how I view nature of weblogs…it feels like I am talking to myself, which is not fun or engaging. Because of this, I don’t take pride in my weblog nor do I want to make it look good. Posting in this thing feels like a chore, it takes me hours to even start because I will keep putting it off. One suggestion that I think may make a difference with this problem is for the instructor to make our weblogs more defined and structured. These things are so open and random from one weblog to the next I don’t even know if I’m doing this right, which is not a good thing two modules deep into the course. Anyway’s for now I’ll keep on doing what ever it is that I am doing and hopefully this weblog turns out ok…

P.S. I like your latest post Dale.

2002-10-31T15:34:00.000-08:00

Popularity Programs

A key ingredient to the power law within large networks is link popularity so I feel it is important to discuss this with regards to this weeks material.

“Link popularity is basically the number of links that point to your web site. Besides the optimization of your web pages for meta tags and search engine readiness, link popularity is considered as being a major factor for your ranking in the search engines”

Not only is it a major factor for search engine ranking, it is how scale free, power law distributed networks differentiate and rank nodes. This is a basic understanding of internet topography which plays an important role in generating traffic and having people view your site. One phenomenon that has emerged out of this network structure is the creation of popularity programs. These are small networks which all share and distribute each others links in an attempt to gain more power on the web.

Examples:
Example 1
Example 2

“The current generation of "link popularity" is much more sensitive to the context in which the site is listed. In theory, link popularity now takes into consideration:
• The theme of sites linking to yours - your site is judged by the type of site linking to yours, and whether it is relevant to the theme of your site. The more relevant sites, the better.
• How those sites link to yours - they look at the words used in the link to your site; the more relevant keyword phrases, the better.
• The link popularity of sites linking to yours - A "popular" (judged by link popularity) site linking to yours is significantly more important than unpopular sites. Thus a link from Yahoo counts for a lot.”

Today quality of links has become increasingly important among search engine rankings which in turn has a direct impact on the power law structure. Popularity programs have adapted to this.

2002-10-31T14:41:00.000-08:00

Scale-Free, Power Law and Large Networks

Many large networks such as the World Wide Web or actually just large networks in general share common traits and similar structures when comparing these masses of linked nodes. Two commonalities that appear to be evident among many large networks are the power law and scale free structures. Within scale-free structures a few nodes have a large amount of connections or links to other nodes where as the many other nodes only have a few connections each. This is directly related to power law distribution, that a small number of large websites (in the case of the internet) gain the most links and traffic making them larger still, leading to the rich get richer phenomenon.

“Previous research has shown that this structure can be caused by a sort of perpetual rich-get-richer dynamic that says the larger a node is, the more likely it is to attract links.”

In building up these power house nodes which control the WWW, we see the incorporation of small world networks into the marketing scheme. Site promoters or web marketers trade links with one another to gain popularity within the larger network as a whole. The more links that are traded within this small network and the larger the small network is the more connection to nodes a certain node will have. This has a tremendous impact on their placement in search engines, the holy grail of internet traffic. This is where the rich get richer dynamic is clearly the motivation for many web developers.

“Nearly everyone (85% of Internet users) begins his or her Web travel at a major search engine. Millions of people visit the most popular search engines every day and when people find your pages using search engines, it is because they are looking for the type of company, service or product you offer.”

“The real value of links are that they increase your popularity rating in the major search engines that track how many external sites link to yours. The idea is that your site must be good if a whole lot of other sites link to it.”

The more links a node hosts or gains the more power it receives within the network, establishing the power law as a dominant structure of the WWW. It becomes increasingly important to understand this aspect of the internet as the WWW continues to expand and more and more nodes saturate the network. In order to stay on top of the power hierarchy today’s developers and marketers must have this understanding and insight into large networks such as this.

2002-10-24T21:22:00.000-07:00

"Small World" Fitness Network

Ok, well it turns out it is a small world after all....I chose the website Fitnessonline.com as the center point of my social network map. This is a website and a community that revolves around an interest of mine…fitness, I often visit this site for fitness and nutritional information; I browse through the discussion boards, read the articles and resources, and talk in the chat rooms. I traced the links from this site to 7 different websites, which was not too easy to do I may add…and as it turned out all of those websites were sites for magazine subscriptions…I was getting a little suspicious at this point. From there I did a brief trace from each one of the 7 secondary links to other sites they were linked to…nothing interesting came from that process though, keep in mind that the fitness community is very very very large and to do a proper map of all the links would be impossible. Anyway, back to the part were I was getting suspicious…as I looked through the 7 secondary sites, all of which were magazine related, I noticed a similar publication name…Weider Publications. It turns out that the site I have been interacting with is basically one big giant advertisement for Weider Publications. The information Fitnessonline provides is actually taken from the magazines that the site is linked to. I found this very interesting because I was totally not aware of this :P

2002-10-24T20:58:00.000-07:00

"Small World" Fitness Network

2002-10-21T18:35:00.000-07:00

Small World Networks, Kevin Bacon, and Business Pt.II

So with the “Six Degrees of Separation” and “The Random Universe” stuck in my mind how can I not be relating all of this to business and more specifically marketing? This units material has marketing written all over it, so that is what I have begun looking into…application of the “Six Degrees of Separation” and randomness within networks and its role in business and marketing. The business term, “Networking” is related to these concepts, by talking to as many “random” people as possible the chances for a beneficial reward increases with each encounter.

“Don’t pass up an opportunity to be introduced to your best client, simply because you forgot the concept of "six degrees of separation." Everyone you meet, knows somone who could do business with you and your company. Remember: a personal referal is worth a thousand sales letters.”

I’m still digging deeper into this so that is all for now, more to come soon!

2002-10-21T18:34:00.000-07:00

Small World Networks, Kevin Bacon, and Business

I remember playing the “Kevin Bacon” game (yeah, it was at the Ozone…ok, don’t laugh…) before and thinking, “Wow, this is really cool!” never realizing the potential of that game for discussing and conceptualizing real world networks. That game, if you’ve played it before (hopefully not at the Ozone), is related to the concept of the “Small World Network” and the research of social scientist Stanley Milgram. Milgram is the man behind the famous, “Six degrees of Separation” phrase, a phrase which represents the notion that members of any large social network can be connected to each other through various relations shared in common. The links between individuals averaged roughly six, meaning that there were six people separating any two individuals in a particular social network. The “Kevin Bacon” game I mentioned before follows the notion of “six degrees of separation”, but is called, “four degrees of Kevin Bacon” because there will only be a maximum of four actors separating any one actor from Kevin Bacon…anyway….Applying this concept to digital networks the same type of association can be found except the number of links among individuals is increased to 19.

The idea of Randomness as presented in “The Random Universe” follows along a similar path than that of “Six Degrees of Separation”. They both relate to the use of channels or links within a network. One uses links to associate individuals within a network the other can spread information throughout a network. As Tim nicely provides an example of this randomness concept,

“This is a very interesting concept and I think that I ahve been familiar with it in the past. Look back at rumours. they start with one person and before long the whole school knows about it. I know that analogy from my past, but I haven't really tried to apply it to my present day life.”

2002-10-17T01:37:00.000-07:00

Positive Feedback, Media, and Weblogs

Positive feedback basically amplifies input or some kind of source material into something larger than the original. I was just thinking about our weblogs, the concept of positive feedback, and the news and realized that it all relates. How does information spread across weblogs? My answer was…just like it does through news broadcasts…through positive feedback. We’ve seen examples of this in our weblogs, such as “Which Mage are You” or “Which Princess are You?” Simple things like that which gets amplified as they spread from one weblog to another until everyone knows about it. We can draw a parallel with this to the media. In one remote part of the country someone can save a killer whale (I have no idea where that example came from!!!) and the next thing you know the whole country knows about it. It’s all just different types of information but they share the same underlying structure…positive feedback. You could argue that the web is more self regulated in that you select the information you wish to see and with TV you can’t. But then again if you didn’t want to know about the guy who saved the killer whale you could have shut off your TV couldn’t you?

I’m not sure of the point to this…I guess I was just thinking out loud (if you want to call this loud, actually it is pretty loud)….

2002-10-17T01:14:00.000-07:00

Self regulating systems

“In the face to face world, we are all social thermostats: reading the group temperature and adjusting our behavior accordingly.” (Steven Johnson)

I really liked this quote; it describes an application of negative feedback that we all use whether we know it or not.

Scenario Time….

Someone on the street is tying to sell you something…. you assess the situation…. determine that you are not interested and it is a complete waste of your time….so you adjust your actions and behavior accordingly such as walking on by or looking the other way.

However, lets say you just passed an interesting poster stapled to a wall, you think it might be worth checking out, so what do you do??? You move closer and read the print.

It’s easy to see how this concept can be applied to weblog culture. Negative feedback will determine which weblogs you read, which ones you spend more time on, which ones you will think are worth responding to and interact with, and most other weblogging activities. Negative feedback allows systems to be self regulating…which is why this concept can have a variety of applications. In the case of human behavior online, it can be applied to the self regulation of time or self regulation of information, which is why it affects our weblogging behavior so dramatically. There are so many weblogs out there no one can possibly read and follow them all, we must regulate!

2002-10-16T01:36:00.000-07:00

geez, ive been away for a couple of days but im back now...time to blog again...in the morning though im sooooo tired

c-ya

2002-10-12T21:59:00.000-07:00

Bootstrapping

Ok, so the analogy of bootstrapping in the course material was a little confusing, which left me with an unclear understanding of bootstrapping in relation to digital systems. However, this quote seemed to relate the most:

"In Englebart's view, "bootstrapping" is a crutial part of a co-evolutionary process, emphasizing interdependencies among humans and the tools and systems we make. He understood that networked computers meant collaborative authoring environments, based around loops and links."-CMS

as well as,

"In simple words, the better we get at our collective IQ, the better we'd get at improving our collective IQ." - Englebart

This concept seems to relate to building intellectual complex systems, systems that provide information across a network. Our weblogs are an example of this. As the system of weblogs builds up, the more information is created and shared. The interdependencies among humans and the tools and systems is the fuel that they both provide eachother. This fuel is information, we input information into the system and the system provides even more back to us... a feedback loop. The bridge analogy in the presentation could be viewed as the formation of a complex system. You start with a simple line, individual, or node and build upon that until the system can support "the weight of a thousand trucks" or the network is large enough to generate and make availible large amounts of information.

Make any sense? Someone please let me know if I have totally misunderstood this!!!

2002-10-07T00:17:00.000-07:00

Sidewalks…The “complex order” of the city

If sidewalks are important because they are the primary conduit for the flow of information between city residents, then are web blogs our online sidewalks?
-Ian
Ian made a great observation in one of his latest posts, are weblogs our online sidewalks? I would have to say yes, they are! The stories that are told through weblogs could easily be a considered a random sidewalk conversation. Surfing through weblogs could be the passing by of people, some you talk to and interact with others you don’t. The information learned and the knowledge spread through weblogs could relate to a conversation with a person who shares the same interests as yourself. Johnson makes a comment about the ability of the sidewalk that has significance to electronic culture:

“Sidewalks allow a relatively high bandwidth communication between total strangers, and they mix large numbers of individuals in random configurations”. Pg.94 "Emergence"

Well then, if weblogs can be considered our online sidewalks then would the global system of weblogs be our online city? Would they both share similar principles for deriving macro intelligence and adaptability from local knowledge, fostering emergence?

Maybe we should apply our knowledge of weblog culture onto the sidewalks for the benefit of humanity! Owen seems to think so…

“my hope springs from the sidewalk; from my daily interactions with humans that are positive. And there are many of us having these kinds of interactions all around the world at any given time.”
-Owen

Sounds like someone is encouraging random encounters

“When we can wake up and smell the pheromones (so to speak) and interact a little more freely with one another, we are then allowing a more intelligent humanity to emerge.”-Owen

2002-10-06T23:05:00.000-07:00

Weblogs and harvester ants?

5 Fundemental principles you need to follow if you want your weblogging system to be as successful as harvester ants. Principles applied to weblogs which foster emergent behavior and the development of this complex system.

Criteria 1: More is different

The more weblogs that are created, the more room there is for creativity, diversity, and the chance for interaction within individual weblogs. In order for any type of patterns to emerge out of a complex system, the system must be composed of many individuals to allow for a large amount of interaction. The system as a whole can make “intelligent assessments of its global state”. This allows us webloggers to judge the additions we make to the system as well as make connections among other weblogs.

Criteria 2: Ignorance is useful.

Stick to what you know, I have found the most useful blogs have stuck to points surrounding one or two topics. By keeping blogs ignorant of other information they are more useful to the system as a whole. This is not to say limit the content of your blog or anything, just try and keep it focused. This type of blog ignorance is more useful to the group than a blog jammed full of non interrelated material.

Criteria 3: Encourage random encounters.

The interactions between webloggers contribute greatly to the development and emergent behaviors of that system. In emergence patterns can occur out of these random encounters that lead to new and exciting attributes of that system. The need is to increase these interactions, make connections among weblogs, therefore it is important to encourage random blog encounters.

Criteria 4:Look for patterns in the signs

Detect and try to build upon patterns that you encounter among weblogs. Following these trails of knowledge could lead to gained knowledge about a topic, system or global state of the “colony”. Emergence is formed through patterns, developing recognized patterns fosters emergence.

Criteria 5: Pay attention to your neighbors

“Local information can lead to global wisdom”-Johnson. The interaction between neighboring weblogs in similar fields allows for the transfer of information and the development of patterns and connections among weblogs. When this occurs we can expect to see emergent behavior which will benefit all of the webblogging community. If all webloggers were only concerned with themselves there would be no “system”.

2002-10-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

The Third Culture...what chu talkin bout Willis?

I am starting to really relate to this third culture in the work we have been doing so far, weblogs and otherwise…

First I just want to define what the third culture is referring to (I like to regurgitate things I’ve read, just so I can collect my thoughts…that’s how my brain works):

The Third Culture:
“The third culture consists of those scientists and other thinkers in the empirical world who, through their work and expository writing, are taking the place of the traditional intellectual in rendering visible the deeper meanings of our lives, redefining who and what we are.”

The third culture is a blend between what has traditionally been thought of as two ends of the spectrum, scientist (sciences) and intellectuals (arts). Obviously a connection with my experiences at TechBC/SFU but I won’t get into that yet, this is still in the regurgitation stage….

“a "third culture," would emerge and close the communications gap between the literary intellectuals and the scientists.”
What are the ways this communications gap can be closed? What does that have to do with Weblogs?

“Today, third culture thinkers tend to avoid the middleman and endeavor to express their deepest thoughts in a manner accessible to the intelligent reading public.”

Ahhhhh this is where electronic culture and weblogging tie into this units investigation. This is exactly what we are doing in this course, we are using weblogs to close this gap, clearly an example of this third culture emergence…Weblogs provide a perfect platform to entertain this idea, the expression of deep thoughts to an intelligent reading public…That could actually be a definition for the purpose of a weblog could it not? Weblogs are definetly tools of the third culture, our vehicles for thought, tools that allow us to avoid this “middleman” and communicate directly with the public, creating a bridge between the traditional scientists and intellectuals by voicing our thoughts on subjects such as complexity. I could see how patterns of emergence were present in weblog culture and how that relationship fit in with complexity but failed to see just why weblogs were chosen as the primary source of our investigations, I mean there are other forms of electronic culture to choose from that foster emergent behavior and deal with complexity.

2002-10-06T23:04:00.000-07:00

The Third Culture and TechBC/SFU

Our studies at school are an emergence of the emergence of the third culture. Our degrees could easily be a mixture of a Bachelor of Arts and that of Science, which have obviously been derived or have emerged from third culture attributes. I view myself as a scientist, not in the traditional sense of the word of course; conversely, I’am an artist but not really…

I guess you could say that I investigate into the realm of scientific exploration through the voice of the intellectual. My voice can be read or viewed by the masses, we communicate electronically…

Anyway, I really enjoyed what Erika has to say about our education:

"Originally all students in all programs of TechBC were to receive a bachelors of applied science... then that was change to a bachelors of science.. thankfully, I will still receive my intended degree, but for future students it still remains a mystery. Take IA for example... it's NOT general arts, it's NOT fine arts, it's NOT communications; and on the other hand, it is not engineering nor science in the traditional sense (at SFU - biology, chemistry...). Yet elements from all those faculties are present within the program, and then some. While IT is more closely related to computer science and engineering, there are still problems concerning where exactly the program fits (right now, both IA and IT are under the faculty of applied science, in the future this could change)."

All I could think of when I read this was that we are receiving a “no brow” education. Its an amalgamation of concepts ideas, scientific or artsy, into one giant blend of information. The distinction between my knowledge base is non existent, people always ask me, “What do you do in interactive arts” or “What do you learn” and I always reply…I don’t know…lots of stuff. Its true, we know a little about a lot. The general public is still in this twin towers mode…your either in sciences or art. How do you explain the basis of our education to them, how do you explain, “What we do”? I agree with Erika when she says, “from my point of view, traditional establishments have not changed to accommodate the third culture”. From my experience not many people have from the reactions I get when I explain all of the sources of my education. However, don’t get me wrong I feel confident that I can almost do any non technical job out there!

2002-10-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

What mage am I?

find your element
at mutedfaith.com.
<º>

I'am an Illusionist :P

2002-10-06T22:44:00.001-07:00

Terminator 3

Ok, how cool is this website...I can't wait!!!

Check it out

2002-10-06T22:44:00.000-07:00

Very Complex Systems

Emergence and Complex Systems are very closely related concepts.

“Frequently, complexity takes the form of a hierarchy, whereby a complex system is composed of interrelated subsystems that have in turn their own subsystems, and so on, until some lowest level of elementary components is reached”
::Complexity::

Emergence could be looked at as the building of these complex systems. The overall complex system could be anything, from a webpage or lets say in this case a weblog to a sky scraper or even our lives, the idea is the same. A webpage, for example, is composed of many different parts all of which are nothing by themselves. Hosting, networks, domains, html, graphics, and content are parts of the system. Once those parts are put together you get another system, one that has purpose and meaning, one that can convey a message anywhere in the world, this system is complex. Keep in mind that there is much more to the complexity of a webpage than what I have outlined! (This is for entertainment purposes only). Emergence can be viewed in a similar way however, it is not so black and white… actually none of this is. Emergence is the form of patterns or connections out of a seemingly chaotic system. Individual units coincide with one another forming a new system of different properties than that of the individual units. Much like complex systems, these units are a part of something larger and more significant. So the webpage example can be seen by parts coming together, emergence does this with a behavioral aspect.

Everything is just so complex…

2002-10-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

Adaptation is defined as:

ad•ap•ta•tion Pronunciation Key ( d p-t sh n)
n.
1.
a. The act or process of adapting.
b. The state of being adapted.
2.
a. Something, such as a device or mechanism, that is changed or changes so as to become suitable to a new or special application or situation.
b. A composition that has been recast into a new form: The play is an adaptation of a short novel.
3. Biology. An alteration or adjustment in structure or habits, often hereditary, by which a species or individual improves its condition in relationship to its environment.
4. Physiology. The responsive adjustment of a sense organ, such as the eye, to varying conditions, such as light intensity.
5. Change in behavior of a person or group in response to new or modified surroundings.

The fifth definition of adaptation seems to trigger a relation to emergence. Emergence is the evolution of a system, a change in a system resulting in growth. The definition of adaptation states “change in behavior of a person or group in response to new or modified surroundings”. When a system evolves the surroundings are either new or have been modified, this fits into the definition of emergence. So I am led to believe that adaptation relates to emergence in that it defines the change in behavior of the units which make up the complex system as the system emerges.

This could relate to the design problem of fostering emergence of a class network of weblogs in that in order for the emergence to occur the units (students) must adapt to the process of building the network. As the network changes and the surroundings (or interface) grows the behavior of the student must affect the network in a positive way. Each student has to understand what the “big picture” is and how it can be accomplished. By consciously adapting to emergent behavior the network will continue to grow. However, if the class weblogs do not adapt to the class network by not producing patterns or connections then the idea of having a class network of weblogs will fail, hence a design problem.

I remember having to adapt to the digital context of TechBC when first coming here. I had never done any sort of learning through a computer, it was all books and papers. I had never handed in a digital assignment at 2:00 am from home before, relied on a computer to tell me when assignments were due or “log on” instead of going to class. An online conference??? What the heck is that!!! The entire process or transformation to this school has been one big giant adaptation, a change in my behavior in response to my new surroundings!

2002-10-06T22:41:00.000-07:00

Terminator 3!!!

This is going to be the best thing since sliced bread!!!

Terminator 3

I can't wait till July.

Oh ya, ummmm...the terminators are emergent technologies or something : )

2002-10-06T20:58:00.000-07:00

well, now its time to post all of the entires ive saved up and hopefully i can figure out how to make this better...

2002-10-06T20:57:00.000-07:00

test once again

2002-09-24T01:23:00.000-07:00

Emergence...

What is my definition of the core principles and patterns of emergence theory??? Well…I will try and piece it together here and hopefully as I write this I might be able to create something solid. First the basics…I know that emergence theory is a way to look at complex systems and that these systems evolve in a non-linear fashion (such as networks, hyperlinks…ect). The parts of these systems are connected in some way, not particularly all to one another but in some way to form a larger system. When these parts are connected and continue to grow, an act of emergence takes place, a form of change…

“An individual ant, like an individual neuron, is just about as dumb as can be. Connect enough of them together properly, though, and you get spontaneous intelligence.”

“Complex behavior manifests from simple units and rules”, by making connections and forming non-linear, random patterns, a simple act such as creating a weblog can emerge into a complex system capable of much more than the individual units involved.

“Emergence is what happens when the whole is smarter than the sum of its parts. It's what happens when you have a system of relatively simple-minded component parts -- often there are thousands or millions of them -- and they interact in relatively simple ways. And yet somehow out of all this interaction some higher level structure or intelligence appears, usually without any master planner calling the shots. These kinds of systems tend to evolve from the ground up.” – Steven Johnson

Weblogging and webculture is made up of thousands and thousands, lets just say millions, of individuals or what I guess you could consider units. Now, each one of those units may not be too complex or significant on their own. The miracle of the internet or world wide web allows all of these units to be interconnected in some way or (hyperlinks, SE’s..ect). This is where weblogging and webculture is related to emergence theory. These units, when connected, form a complex system capable of much more that each individual unit can offer. The ability to surf a vast and endless amount of information is one offering of this system having each individual unit contributing to it. That is my take on this theory so far…

2002-09-17T22:44:00.000-07:00

What is a weblog?

A weblog is a collection of thoughts, opinions, experiences, links or any other form of personal expression geared towards a certain topic or topic(s). Weblogs are difficult to clearly define because they focus on the individual who has total control of the form and content contained within. However, three basic formats or styles have emerged which blogs adhered to, these styles are interchangeable and can be combined. They are:

Blogs: These consist of short day to day entries based on the author’s every day activities (web or otherwise) which can be as simple as thoughts or comments. They can also contain relevant links to outside pages.

Notebooks: Notebooks are similar to blogs in that they are based around the author’s experiences but they consist of longer entries and are more focused on the topic(s). This form could relate to a diary or journal entry.

Filters: The author of this form of weblog may not make any entries at all, their duty is to “filter” out websites that he/she thinks are interesting and make entries of these hyperlinks into their log. The links usually revolve around a specific topic and can connect readers who share this similar interest.

What makes a good weblog?

Aside from graphics, layout or content which are all personal opinion, qualities which make a good weblog include:

Author based: this means the weblog is totally built around author, whether it be his/her preferences and/or thoughts or investigation into a chosen topic(s). This log should be created without regard for what the reader will “think” of what they have entered.

Communication: There should also be some sort of communication with the readers to enrich the content of the log.

Motivation: The author should be motivated to make frequent entries to keep content fresh giving readers a reason to come back more often enhancing the surrounding community.

Examples of good weblogs:

Weblog 1

This weblog is in a notebook format and contain personal entries of the author which I happened to find pretty interesting plus there is some focus on fitness.

Weblog Catagories

Actually this is just a collection of weblogs (kinda like the course metablog) which are based on tons of different topics. This is an easy way to check out a blog of interest!

My Weblog:

Focusing this weblog around the course will be interesting since I will be learning as I write, who knows how it will turn out. I will use the notebook format because I think it suits me and my schedule the best. However I do wish to include some of my interests in the blog as well… just to give it a little something extra. I guess we will see how this thing turns out!