Month: November 2003

Social networking – the link is the thing…

DM Review – The Link is the Thing, Part 3
By Richard Hackathorn

A partial list of references mentioned in this three part series:

Valdis Krebs :: Post-Merger Integration, Scale-Free Networks, The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia, Small World Project – Columbia University, Norah Jones, Citations: Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications – Wasserman, Faust (ResearchIndex), DM Review – Farming Web Resources for the Data Warehouse , The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web – Page, Brin, Motwani, Winograd (ResearchIndex), Pagerank Explained Correctly with Examples, Pagerank Explained. Google’s PageRank and how to make the most of it., SIENA, Associative Link Analysis resource site.

…Part 1 of this article (August 2003 issue of DM Review) reviews the work in network analysis of complex systems, particularly the recent research into the small-world (SW) property, aristocratic-egalitarian (A-E) distinction and tipping points. Part 2 (September 2003 issue of DM Review) applies these concepts to the business intelligence (BI) and data warehousing (DW) fields with a new methodology called Associative Link Analysis (ALA) by discussing the translation of typical warehouse schema into an associative graph form. This article, Part 3, the final in the series, describes several metrics for analyzing graphs, strategies and tactics based on the SW property, and implementation issues…

Additional reading on a few of the concepts introduced in this three part series:

“Small World Property”: Locality, Hierarchy, and Bidirectionality in the Web (ResearchIndex),
“Small World Architectures”: Multiple Scales in Small-World Networks (ResearchIndex),
“Tipping Points”: Tipping Points,
“ER Schema”: A Formal Framework for ER Schema Transformation – McBrien, Poulovassilis (ResearchIndex).

[judith meskill’s knowledge notes…]

Great collection of substantive resources on network analysis. I wish that more of the designers of services like Ryze, LinkedIn, and the like had read and absorbed these lessons before launching into software development. I see little evidence that they have and with the lemming like rush of VC money into this space, I’m betting on a mini-bubble popping in the not too distant future.

Lunch with Rick Klau

Lunch with Jim McGee.

Just returned to the office from a thoroughly engagaing lunch with Jim McGee. Jim is every bit as smart and engaging as his weblog would have you think he is.

As has become the norm in first-time meetings with fellow bloggers, all of the ordinary “getting to know you” stuff is gone. We already know each other, we already have an idea of what interests each other, and we jump right into a completely thought-provoking discussion. It was true when I met Chris & Joy, Ernie, Buzz, Matt, Denise, Jonas, Ross and many others.

John Robb wrote about this last year too. With “social software” getting so much attention lately, I think we would be wise to recognize that weblogs have become one of the best ways to get to know people you should know. You decide which people to associate with in part based on what they know — and blogs help establish that.

I’ve been fortunate enough to meet several of my friends face to face, but the most surprising thing is that after meeting them face to face it only reaffirmed what I already knew: they’re interesting, thoughtful people who I’m lucky to know.

By Rick Klau. [tins ::: Rick Klau's weblog]

Rick skips over the importance of two to an excellent conversation. After almost two years of reading each other's blogs, several phone conversations, and multiple last-minute lunch cancellations, Rick and I finally managed to break bread together.

We did indeed dive right into several conversations that were both challenging and entertaining. Something that would not be possible, by the way, simply as a side effect of several of the various networking websites such as Ryze or LinkedIn. While these sites may have a role to play, the picture you can build of someone on the basis of following their blog on a sustained basis (preferably in your aggregator) is not something that can be replaced by the dry recitation of resume tidbits and interests that make up the relatively static content of these networking sites.

Looking forward to future lunches with Rick.

Congratulations Full Professor AKMA

Rest of the Day.

After mass, I went to lunch with the adult education coordinator of the parish (St. Elizabeth’s, Glencoe — which always makes me think of Scotland’s infamous massacre) that’s invited me out to talk about The DaVinci Code. She and I traded ideas about the panel discussion, which includes Prof. Barbara Newman of Northwestern University and Brian Hastings of Church of Our Savior, over an Indian buffet. She’s rather more sympathetic to Gnosticism than I am, but we held a lively and wide-ranging converstion. It sounds as though the church will be packed; she’s estimating three to four hundred people will attend, overflowing the sanctuary and spilling into an adjacent parish room. If you’re coming, come early, I guess.

When I got back to my office, the Dean rang me up; the Board of Trustees had voted to promote me to full Professor. It sounded as though he said “effective immediately,” but I got lost in a jumble of subsequent topics. To be on the safe side, you may kneel and call me “Full Professor Adam” when you address me. [emphasis added]

Then, alas! I had to drop Margaret off on the train. Pip did her Halloween bit, Si is off at a (church) all-night lock-in, and I’m exhausted. I didn’t sleep well last night; tonight, I’m about to crumple altogether.

[AKMA’s Random Thoughts]

So typical of AKMA to try to bury the news about himself in this post. Even Boards of Trustees do eventually get things right sometimes.  Congratulations on your promotion!