đź•ą I am Insta Famous

Am I a virus?

Petr Slováček on Unsplash

Introduction

Do you think your friends have more friends than you have? Do you think that you are outside the herd, and that what you think or do is from your own mind?

Anyways…

Activities

Activity: Secret Santa Game

Let us play this in the vanilla way: Paper chits with names in a bin and drawing them in turn. What can go wrong with this? Ask Avni Gupta.

Should we use this instead? https://www.drawnames.com.sg/secret-santa-generator

Discussion: Nodes, Links, Link Directionality, Connected and Disconnected Networks

Activity: Barabasi Cocktail Party Game

This is a game “invented” by Alberto-Laszlo Barabasi, a Network Science pioneer and expert, who has written a wonderful, and wonderfully acessible, book on Network Science, available online http://networksciencebook.com/

  1. Please take a coin in your hand. (A rupee coin is good!)
  2. Find a stranger potential new friend in the classroom. Both of you toss your coins.
  3. If the coins show two Heads or two Tails, introduce yourselves, make small talk, exchange classroom and college gossip. 2 Minutes!
  4. Make a note of your new friends initials.
  5. We will plot this conversation on the board. How?

Discussion: Network Mechanisms, Information Flow, Giant Component, Emergence

Activity: Indian Surnames Game

  1. How many common Indian surnames do we know? Let us write them on the board.
  2. Each of us will now look at each surname and recollect how many people they know with that surname.
  3. Write down the score for each surname.
  4. Let’s plot this on (yet another) network!!

Discussion: Node Degree, Giant Component? Small Worlds? Multi-Link network, Link Values or Costs

Activity: Hi, I am Kevin Bacon, SMI Foundation 2023 Batch

Let us find a Keven Bacon in SMI Foundation Studies Programme!! Six Degrees of Separation…or of Kevin Bacon?

Look at this video before you proceed!

  1. Collect friends Data from across college/class, import and plot, analyze and comment
  2. Use this online tool at DataBasic.io https://databasic.io to Connect the Dots, OR
  3. Even more fun at at GraphCommons https://graphcommons.com/graphs/new

Discussion: Node Degree, Centrality, Betweenness, Link Values or Costs

Activity: Can you Introduce me to Chandler, again?

  1. Take your favourite Literary Work / TV Serial / Movie and create a Network Database for it.

  2. How? Use conversations between pairs of individuals (nodes) to create links. E.g. each distinct conversation is a link, and the number of sentences uttered is the weight of the link.

  3. Visualize it either with or without tech tools From Teach Engineering, this Activity Sheet https://www.teachengineering.org/activities/view/uno_graphtheory_lesson01_activity2.

Hah! Engineering in a Design college!!

  1. Can also use Graph Comics https://aviz.fr/~bbach/graphcomics/

Discussion: Networks are everywhere, Cannot "unsee" them, You are a node and you are a link...are you?

Activity: Way-Spotting Game

Now that we have an idea of nodes, links and costs, let us get an experience of some more network science ideas:

  1. Make groups of 3.
  2. Head over to http://www.wayspotting.com/index.html
  3. Play!! Make a note of your route each time ( your “traversal” of the network)
  4. Note if you can see the following:
  • Frequently Used Nodes
  • Frequently used Links
  1. See here for more info: https://medium.com/\@ran_katzir/teaching-network-science-using-board-games-f78489a3b3bd. Sadly link seems dead ;-(

Discussion: Network Traversal, Node Degree, Centrality, Betweenness, Link Values or Costs

References

  1. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi. Network Science. http://networksciencebook.com

  2. Dmitry Zinoniev, Network Science Intro Slides. https://www.slideshare.net/DmitryZinoviev/workshop-20212296

  3. The Network Effects Bible. https://www.nfx.com/post/network-effects-bible

  4. Mark Newman, The Physics of Networks. Good intro Power Laws and examples of many networks. Read the PDF

  5. The Historical Network Research Community. https://historicalnetworkresearch.org

  6. Konrad M. Lawson, Toilers and Gangsters: Simple Network Visualization with R for Historians

  7. A Network oriented short story. Frigyes Karinthy, “Chains”. Read PDF

  8. Who told you about Srishti? Where? Mark Granovetter, The Strength of Weak Ties, https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~jure/pub/papers/granovetter73ties.pdf

  9. Michele Coscia. 2019. Who will Cluster the Cluster Makers? https://www.michelecoscia.com/?p=1709 Accessed 12 Jan 2024.

  10. Ran Katzir. Nov 16, 2019. Experience Network Science Through Play.https://medium.com/@ran_katzir/teaching-network-science-using-board-games-f78489a3b3bd

  11. Mark Hoffman, Methods for Network Analysis. https://bookdown.org/markhoff/social_network_analysis/

  12. Omar Lizardo and Isaac Jilbert, Social Networks: An Introduction. https://bookdown.org/omarlizardo/_main/

  13. David Easely and Kleinberg. Networks, Market and Crowds. The Rich get Richer. http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/kleinber/networks-book/networks-book-ch18.pdf

Network Science in a Bollywood Song

Song: Kuchh Toh Log Kahenge
Singer: Kishore Kumar
Music: R. D. Burman
Film: Amar Prem (1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK6Hux4spNM

Hindi Lyrics English Translation
Kuch toh log kahenge People will say something or the other
Logon ka kaam hai kehna It’s the job of people to say something
Chhodo bekaar ki baaton mein Forget all these useless things
Kahin beet na jaaye raina Or else our night will end just around them
Kuch toh log kahenge People will say something or the other
—— ——-
Kuch reet jagat ki aisi hai(2) Some traditions of the world are such that
Har ek subah ki shaam huyi(2) Every morning has had an evening
Tu kaun hai, tera naam hai kya Who are you and what’s your name
Sita bhi yahan badnaam huyi Even Goddess Sita has been defamed here
Phir kyun sansaar ki baaton se Then why with these conversations of the world
Bheeg gaye tere naina Have your eyes become bedewed
Kuch toh log kahenge People will say something or the other
———- ————
Humko joh taane dete hai(2) Those who taunt us saying that
Hum khoye hai in rangraliyon mein(2) We’re lost in this debauchery
Humne unko bhi chup chupke Secretly I’ve also seen them
Aate dekha in galiyon mein Coming in these streets
Yeh sach hai jhoothi baat nahi This is the truth and not a lie
Tum bolo yeh sach hai na You tell me, isn’t this the truth?
Kuch toh log kahenge People will say something or the other
… …


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