Emergence of Communication Networks: A Selforganizing Systems Perspective

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Emergence of Communication NetworksA
Self-organizing Systems Perspective

• Noshir S. Contractor
• Depts. of Speech Communication Psychology
• University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• nosh_at_uiuc.edu
• Viestintä, viisaus ja vastuu
• Lume-mediakeskuksessa
• Hämeentie 135 C, 00560 Helsinki
• February 4, 2000

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OUTLINE

• Examples of self-organizing entities
• The role of technologies in facilitating
  self-organizing systems
• The new role of communication research in
  studying self-organizing systems

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Self-Organizing Entities

• FAA initiative for free flight
• Hollywood production teams
• Organizational consulting firms
• Linux
• Internet

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Stages of Technology Use
Substitution
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Substitution

• Adoption based on relative advantage,
  observability, adaptability, compatibility,
  trialability
• Examples Automobiles, Telephone,
  Videoconferencing, Arpanet/Internet, WWW

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Substitution Effects

• U.S. Conference Board estimates National
  secretarial pool has shrunk by more than half a
  million in the past decade

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Substitution Effects ?

• The Hollywood Syndrome versus the Shakespeare
  Syndrome?
• Media shape the nature of arguments, which in
  turn shape the nature of decisions
• Media shape the nature of coalitions, which in
  turn shape the nature of decisions

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Substitution Effects ?
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Stages of Technology Use
Enlargement
Substitution
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Enlargement

• If the automobile were invented in 1970 and
  dropped in price accordingly, while increasing
  features, a car would cost less than 5 and drive
  25,000 miles/gallon (Economist, 1998)

• To which the president of GM replied "Yes, but
  would you want your car to crash every time you
  tried to open a window?"

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Enlargement

• 1996 Total volume of email greater than snail
  mail total sales of PC greater than TV sets
• 1999 Total volume of data traffic greater than
  voice 10 fold increase in U.S. e-commerce in 10
  months
• Moores Law Computational power doubles every 18
  months
• Metcalfes Law The value of a network is
  proportional to the number of users squared

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Enlargement Information Gap

• Emerging technologies improve the amount of
  information among the haves and the have-nots
• But the haves are much better informed than the
  have-nots resulting in an increase in the
  Information Gap

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Information Gap
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Stages of Technology Use
Reconfiguration
Enlargement
Substitution
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WORK BY BID?
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Coordination Theory
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Transaction costs of coordination mechanisms

• Hierarchies (Low)
• Markets (Medium)
• Networks (High)

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Organizational Forms
Hierarchy
Matrix
Network
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Fedex and cookies
Firm A
Firm B
Corporate level
Business unit level
Group level
Individual level
Interdependencies in the virtual organization can
occur both internally and externally and at
various levels of the firm.
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Surge of Network Organizations

• More than 20,000 alliances formed worldwide in
  1996-98, accounting for 21 of the revenue of
  Americas 1000 largest firms in 1997 (Harbison
  Pekar, 1999)

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Reconfiguration Examples Put your money where
your mouse is

• Amazon.com, Priceline.com. Lowest price for me.
• Ebay.com, Guru.com Auction. Highest price for
  me.
• Mercata.com, Accompany.com Lowest price for us

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Dawn of the E-lance Economy

• The fundamental unit of such an economy is not
  the corporation but the individual.
  Electronically connected free lancers or
  e-lancers join together into fluid and temporary
  nets to provide and sell goods and services
  (Malone Laubacher, Harvard Business Review,
  1998).

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Reconfiguring relationshipsBrokering information

• Info-mediaries (John Hagel Marc Siegel)
• Importance of leveraging knowledge capital via
  social capital - The case of the Lovegety

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Social and Knowledge Capital

• Social networks and supporting tools
• Cognitive social structures and supporting tools
• Knowledge networks and supporting tools
• Cognitive knowledge networks and supporting tools

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Social Networks

• Its not what you know, its who you know.

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Social Networks


Nodes represent people. Links represent who knows
who.
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Tools to Assist Social Networks

• Tools (such as Ph, WhoIs, Four11) can help reduce
  disparities in social networks
• Example How can I get in touch with person X?

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Cognitive Social Structures

• Its not who you know, its who they think you
  know.

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Tools to Assist Cognitive Social Structures

• Collaboration filtering tools (such as
  SixDegrees) can help individuals answer the Who
  knows who knows who question -- to find out how
  one may be connected to those identified as
  knowledge experts.
• Example I understand that X is an expert in
  topic A. Whom do I know who knows X, and can
  introduce me to X?

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Knowledge Networks

• Who knows what?
• Nodes represent the individuals, project teams,
  organizations, physical locations.
• Links representing the shared knowledge could be
  (i) skills, (ii) expertise, (iii) activities,
  (iv) interest sets, (v) interpretations of
  project goals and/or missions, (vi) work flow
  information.

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Knowledge Networks


Nodes represent people. Links represent shared
knowledge.
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Tools to Assist Knowledge Networks

• Data bases and traditional search engines such as
  Alta Vista.
• Example I need to find out something about topic
  X. Where do I get this information?

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Cognitive Knowledge Networks

• Who knows who knows what?
• Example I need to know more about topic X. Who
  in my extended (direct or indirect) network can
  tell me more about topic X?

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Summary

• Social Structures are based on who knows who.
• Cognitive Social Structures are based on who
  knows who knows who.
• Knowledge Networks are based on Who knows what.
• Cognitive Knowledge Networks are based on who
  knows who knows what.

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The Answer to these Questions . .

• IKNOW !!!!

http//iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu
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Goal of IKNOW
http//iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu
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Data Used in IKNOW

• Based on organizational members Web pages
• Links between Web pages
• Common external links from Web pages
• Content on the Web pages

http//iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu
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Data Used in IKNOW (contd)

• Based on organizational members volunteering
  information about social and knowledge resources
• Content inventory of skills, expertise, etc.
• Links inventory of social networks
• Incentives for volunteering information tied to
  performance appraisal and evaluation of help
  provided.

http//iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu
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So why would one want to use IKNOW?

• Makes the virtual visible.
• Adds social capital to knowledge capital by
  adding contacts to content.
• While collaboration tools help improve the
  process of collaboration in knowledge networks
  IKNOW helps one effectively identify
  collaboration partners and grow the knowledge
  network.

http//iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu
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The New Role of Communication Research
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Self-organizing NetworksWhy do actors create,
maintain, and dissolve network links?

• Exchange theories
• Contagion theories
• Cognitive theories
• Consistency theories
• Homophily theories
• Theories of social capital
• Proximity theories

• Uncertainty reduction theories
• Social support theories
• Collective action theories
• Coordination theories of organizational forms

Source Monge Contractor, in press
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Examples

• Collective Action Public Goods Theory
• Cognitive Theory Transactive Memory Theory
• Cognitive Consistency Theory
• Affect Theory
• Social Capital Theory

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Cognitive Theory Transitivity
Mechanism Increase balance
A

B
B
C
C
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Affective TheoryGroup Cohesion
Mechanism Attraction to group
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Social Capital TheoryStructural holes
Mechanism Increase autonomy, effective network
size
A
D
B
B
C
C
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Summary

• Technologies enable reconfigurable networks
• Reconfigurable networks lead to self-organizing
  systems
• New theory and methods needed to study the
  emergence creation, maintenance, and
  dissolution of these self-organizing networks

FOR FUTHER INFORMATION EMAIL NOSH_at_UIUC.EDU