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Power Law Distribution
 a reply to On Collaborationby gdanner on Nov 08, 2007 - 09:20 AM read 162 times |
I've been with people who've studied social networks of all kinds. They are finding that these networks are subject to what is known as "Power Law Distribution". In other words, a tiny minority of the population is very, very active, and this is enough to keep the whole system viable. We don't necessarily need contributions from each and every node - its ok for the vast majority of the linked population to be read-only.
Networks are the most complex of complex systems, as they exhibit certain characteristics like propogation and edge density. Steve I think you've raised a great "meta point" - if I want to design a collaborative system, how can I do so in a way to get the effect that I want over time?
The short answer: 1) understand the underlying "physics" of how networks work, and 2) put that knowledge into a simulation of the structure. By playing around with a simulated network, one might have better insight as to how to move a network from your first diagram (not so good) to your last (sustainable).
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