Updates and Announcements

A few updates, announcements and reminders pre-MeshForum 2005.

If you have not yet registered for MeshForum 2005 - please go register and pay via PayPal. Full conference rates and new single-day rates are now available.

Venue reminder. MeshForum 2005 opens Sunday night and continues Monday and Tuesday at HotHouse. HotHouse is located at 31 E. Balbo, between State and Wabash.

CHANGE - on Wednesday May 4th for the MeshAction open space workshop, we will now be at 53 W. Jackson in the 8th Floor conference room of the Monadnock Building.

Registration packets will be available to pick up at 5:00pm on Sunday May 1st at HotHouse, food and the reception will start shortly there after at 6:00pm.

Donations to MeshForum are being accepted. MeshForum is an Illinois non-profit corporation and is in the process of applying for 501(3)c status. Until we receive it donations are not tax deductible but all donations will be used to support MeshForum's mission of connecting networks and fostering research into Networks across disciplines.

Announcements about MeshForum 2006 will go up soon, if you have not already done so, please join our meshforum-updates group at Yahoo! to receive all updates and announcements about MeshForum 2005 and future MeshForum events.

See you Sunday!

John Kennedy, Kennedy Consulting Group

John Kennedy is the founder and president of Kennedy Consulting Group, a firm specializing in using proven process and project management methodologies to help individuals and organizations achieve their personal and corporate goals. John draws on a wide range of experience to support his processes allowing his clients to quickly reach their objectives. He has coordinated global project teams for Fortune 50 corporations as well as coached a Junior High Basketball team using the same techniques--both were successful (and just as challenging!!). John feels that networking (building mutually beneficial relationships!) is a great place to apply his Sanely Successful approach, and he loves empowering others to increase their success.

Spencer Maus

Spencer Maus has more than 20 years of experience in media/investor
relations and strategy, business positioning, advance work and road shows,
event promotion and logistics planning, political campaign management and
investment management. Currently, Spencer is the Program director for the
MIT Enterprise Forum and his firm, JASE Consulting & Communications, is
affiliated with Green Cardinal Communications, Inc., a full-service firm of
individual, senior-level MarCom specialists on "Raising Profiles to Increase
Revenues."

Buzz Bruggeman, Activewords

Buzz Bruggeman is a founder and EVP of ActiveWords Inc. where he is responsible for all marketing, evangelizing, and business development. Bruggeman. a DEMO God 2004 Award recipient, speaks regularly as a champion of both his company and the benefits of blogging as a low-cost, highly effective marketing tool on a global level. Jupitermedia recently named ActiveWords as the 3rd Best Software Product of the year, after OpenOffice and Microsoft 2003. Bruggeman also serves on the advisory board of DEMO. For more information, visit Buzz's personal blog and http://www.activewords.com/

Eszter Hargittai, Northwestern

Eszter Hargittai is an Assistant Professor for the Department of Communication Studies, Department of Sociology, and the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. She completed her Ph.D. in the Sociology Department at Princeton University and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Center for Arts and Cultural Policy Studies of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton and remains affiliated with the Center as a Visiting Research Collaborator. Her main research interests are the social and policy implications of information technologies and she is especially interested in how IT may contribute to or alleviate social inequalities. Much of her work has looked at differences in people's Web-use skills. In particular, she studies people's information-seeking behavior and thus have also been following the evolution of search engines and the organization and presentation of online content. Additional research interests include the political uses of information technologies and how IT is influencing the types of cultural products people consume. For more information, visit Eszter's personal website.

Schedule for MeshForum 2005

MeshForum - May 1-4, 2005

6:00pm Sunday - May 1st.

Sunday, Monday and Tuesday MeshForum 2005 is at HotHouse, at 31 E. Balbo between State and Wabash. On Wednesday May 4 for the MeshAction workshop we will be at the 8th floor conference room of the Monadnock Building at 53 W. Jackson.

Opening reception, welcome remarks. Networking in the sense of "meeting other people" and one or more art exhibitions/videos/installations may be presented. Food from SkrineChops.

8:00pm Anne Harris (http://www.anneharris.com) will perform two sets. Open to the public, cover charge of $10. MeshForum attendees attend for free and invited to enjoy one of Chicago's rising musical stars.

Monday - May 2nd.

8:00 AM - Registration opens and light breakfast is served.

8:30 AM - Welcome remarks by Shannon Clark (MeshForum/JigZaw)

9:00 - 10:00 - Dr. Anna Nagurney, "Networks -- the Science Spanning Disciplines"

10:00 - 10:15 - First Interstitial, a series of art inspired by and about Networks.

10:15 - 10:30 - Morning break

10:30 - 11:30 - A case study of Social Network Analysis. Valdis Krebs and Eszter Hargittai on Emergent Communities

11:30 - 1:00 - Living Networks Forum, Ross Dawson

1:00 - 2:00 - A conversation with Esther Dyson and Edward Vielmetti on Social Networks

2:00 - 2:15 - Second Interstitial

2:15 - 2:30 - Afternoon break

2:30 - 3:30 - Dr. Noshir Contractor on "Coevolution of knowledge netowrks and 21st century forms of organizing"

3:30 - 4:30 - Jamais Cascio, "Participatory Panopticon"

4:30 - 5:30 - Networks and Sales, Buzz Bruggeman and John Kennedy

5:30 - 7:30 - Dinner, open conversations and networking

8:00 - midnight- All MeshForum attendees are invited to attend a live performance Monday evening at HotHouse

Tuesday - May 3rd.

8:00 AM - Doors open, Breakfast served

8:30 - 9:30 - Biological Networks, Dr. Eivind Almaas University of Notre Dame on "Networks in Biology: from Protein Interactions to the Metabolism"

9:30 - 9:45 - Third Interstitial

9:45 - 10:00 - morning break

10:00 - 12:00- John Garstka, Office of Force Transformation - Department of Defense on Network-centric warfare and Capt. (ret) Linda Lewandowski on the development and implementation of Sense and Respond Logistics at the Department of Defense

12:00 - 1:00 - Tuesday lunch

1:00 - 1:30 - Fourth Interstitial

1:30 - 3:30 - "Broken Networks" - panel moderated by Howard Greenstein with Rudy Garcia of Citigroup, Sean O'Leary of FEMA and Donna Erat

3:30 - 4:00 - Closing remarks

During both Monday and Tuesday art exhibits and short films will be screened and shown between panels in a series of Interstitials

Tuesday late afternoon and evening is open, attendees are encouraged to explore Chicago

Wednesday - May 4th.

8:30 - 3:30 - MeshAction. Workshop in Open Space opened by Michael Herman. A day long opportunity to synthesize the content of MeshForum and translate it into action for the future. A workshop on Open Space Technology will also be offered to all who are interested.

CAPT (Ret.) Linda M. Lewandowski, United States Navy

Captain (Ret.) Linda M. Lewandowski was born in Norristown, Pennsylvania, in 1958. She graduated from Ursinus College with a Bachelor of Science degree in biology and subsequently attended Officer Candidate School, receiving her commission in the U.S. Navy in 1981. She earned a master's degree in Space Systems Operations from the Naval Postgraduate School in 1991 and completed a one-year Federal Executive Fellowship at the Brookings Institute in Washington, DC. She is also a graduate of the Joint and Combined Warfare School at the Armed Forces Staff College in Norfolk, Virginia.

As a Naval Surface line officer, she served in a variety of engineering and operations billets at sea including command at sea. Additional brief duty periods in Washington, DC, include serving as an Action Officer at OPNAV-513 (Strategy and Concepts Branch) and SECNAV, Office of Program Appraisal (OPA). Following her command afloat tour, she served as Director of Operations (J3) and Deputy Director at the Joint Warfare Analysis Center in Dahlgren, Virginia. She completed a one-year SECDEF Corporate Fellowship at Human Genome Sciences, Inc., in Rockville, MD. Captain (Ret.) Lewandowski also served as the Director for Operations and Plans at Military Sealift Command Headquarters, in Washington, DC.

Her last active duty tour was in the Office of Secretary of Defense, Office for Force Transformation as a Transformation Strategist. She was the project lead for designing the logistics concept, capabilities, and implementation strategy to support global Distributed, Adaptive Operations of U.S. military forces. Her leadership was key to influencing a shift in the Department’s strategy and actions towards restructuring current logistics capabilities. Implementation of this DoD-wide strategy will create new mechanisms for competitive advantage across the range of traditional and emerging military operations.

Upon her transition from active duty military service, Linda Lewandowski joined Synergy as Principal. Synergy is located in Fairfax, Virginia and is an ICF consulting firm. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Maryland. She is married to Vahan Chertavian. They have two children, Aniela and Diran and reside in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

John J. Garstka, Office of Force Transformation

Assistant Director, Concepts and Operations
Office of Force Transformation
Office of the Secretary of Defense

Mr. Garstka is the Assistant Director, Concepts and Operations, Office of Force Transformation (OFT) and a recognized thought leader in the area of Network Centric Warfare (NCW). In his current capacity he leads OFT initiatives in the areas of NCW Implementation and Education for Transformation.

Mr. Garstka is a recognized international speaker and has delivered the Network Centric Warfare message to military and commercial audiences worldwide. In addition, he has lectured at Harvard University, Georgetown University, the University of California at Irvine, University of Maryland, the National Defense University, the Army War College, the Air War College, the Naval War College, the Naval Postgraduate School and the US Naval Academy.

Prior to joining the Office of Force Transformation, Mr. Garstka was the Chief Technology Officer in the Joint Staff. Directorate for Command, Control, Computer and Communications (C4) Systems. In this capacity he played a key role in the development and conceptualization of network-centric warfare and was the Joint Staff lead for the Department of Defense’s Report to Congress on Network Centric Warfare.

Prior to joining the Joint Staff, Mr. Garstka was a Senior Systems Engineer with Cambridge Research Associates, where he had responsibility for leading consulting engagements with commercial and government customers.

Before joining Cambridge, Mr. Garstka served as an officer in the United States Air Force (USAF) for ten years, with assignments on the Air Staff and at USAF Space and Missile Center

Mr. Garstka is a Distinguished Graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics in 1983. He also holds a Master of Science Degree in Engineering-Economic Systems from Stanford University, where he studied as a Hertz Fellow.

Publications and reports he has authored or co-authored include:

Network Centric Warfare: Developing and Leveraging Information Superiority, by Alberts, Garstka, and Stein, CCRP Press, 1999. This book has been reprinted by leading IT companies and translated into three languages. Online at www.dodccrp.org

Understanding Information Age Warfare, by Alberts, Garstka, Hayes, and Signori, CCRP Press, 2001. Online at www.dodccrp.org

“Network Centric Warfare: It’s Origin and Future” which appeared in Proceedings of the Naval Institute in January of 1998.

“Network Centric Warfare: An Overview of Emerging Theory,” which appeared in PHALANX in December of 2000.

DoD Report to Congress on Network Centric Warfare, July 2001. Online at www.dodccrp.org

Update: Fixed URL's.

Coevolution of knowledge netowrks and 21st century forms of organizing

Presentation by Dr. Noshir Contractor Monday May 2nd 2005.

Abstract: Recent advances in digital technologies invite consideration of organizing as a process that is accomplished by global, flexible, adaptive, and ad hoc networks that can be created, maintained, dissolved, and reconstituted with remarkable alacrity. This presentation describes a multi-theoretical multilevel (MTML) model of the socio-technical motivations for creating, maintaining, dissolving, and reconstituting knowledge and social networks. Using examples from his research in emergency response networks, transnational immigrant networks, food safety networks, public health networks, and environmental engineering networks and other networks in the public interest, Contractor develops a framework to understand how the discovery, diagnosis, and design of social and knowledge networks enable novel forms of organizing.

Dr. Noshir Contractor, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Noshir Contractor (www.uiuc.edu/ph/www/nosh) is a Professor in the Department of Speech Communication, Department of Psychology, and the Coordinated Science Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He is a Research Affiliate of the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology, Director of the Science of Networks in Communities (SONIC) Group at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications, and Co-Director of the Age of Networks Initiative at the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His research program, funded continuously for the past decade by major grants from the U.S. National Science Foundation, is investigating factors that lead to formation, maintenance, and dissolution of dynamically linked knowledge networks in 21st century organizational forms.

Professor Contractor has published or presented over 250 research papers dealing with communication. His book titled 'Theories of Communication Networks' (co-authored with Professor Peter Monge and published by Oxford University Press) received the 2003 Book of the Year award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association. He is the lead developer of IKNOW (Inquiring Knowledge Networks On the Web), a community-ware web-based software (http://iknow.spcomm.uiuc.edu) and Blanche, a software program to simulate the dynamics of social networks (http://csu1.spcomm.uiuc.edu/Projects/Teclab/Blanche/). His papers have received Top Paper awards from the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association. In 2000 he was awarded the Outstanding Member Award by the Organizational Communication Division of the International Communication Association. He has served on the editorial boards of Human Communication Research, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Management Communication Quarterly, Organization Science, and the World Wide Web Electronic Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication.

Donna Erat

Donna Erat is a consultant providing comprehensive client services on public policy issues ranging from rural development to homeland security and emergency management. Ms. Erat works with Federal, Tribal, state, and local governments as well as non-governmental organizations and political associations to build strategic alliances that shape policy and public debate.

Prior to consulting, Ms. Erat was employed with an international consulting firm where she developed federal resources on behalf of clients, including port security and homeland security funds. Ms. Erat also was the Associate Director of Federal Government Relations for the Washington, D.C. law firm of Womble, Carlyle Sandridge & Rice, where she lobbied on behalf of the State of North Carolina and the North Carolina Rural Electric Cooperative Association as well as other clients, securing more than $170 million for recovery projects following the 1999 hurricane season. These projects included housing, economic development, rural community facilities, water and sewer infrastructure. Ms. Erat’s aim was not simply to secure federal disaster relief for North Carolina, but to obtain federal funds that could be used to rebuild North Carolina in a way that would improve the economic, social, and environmental quality of life of its residents.

Previously, Ms. Erat worked at the American Public Works Association (APWA), where she collaborated with the Department of Justice’s Office for Domestic Preparedness (now couched within the Department of Homeland Security) and Texas A & M University to develop the first-ever training program for public works officials, addressing their role in preparing for and responding to acts of terrorism. Ms. Erat also partnered with the National League of Cities and the National Congress of American Indians to rewrite FEMA’s authorizing legislation.

Before her work with APWA, Ms. Erat was employed with FEMA in Washington, D.C. where she served as the Intergovernmental Liaison for the Director on disaster related matters. While at FEMA, Ms. Erat also worked in the Mitigation Directorate, developing program policy and documenting the implementation of a post-disaster program. Ms. Erat wrote reports for the White House and Congress, prepared congressional testimony, spoke with the media, and gave presentations to visiting dignitaries. Ms. Erat’s years with FEMA allowed her to work with and navigate through issues including Tribal governance and Trust Responsibilities, environmental justice and compliance, historic preservation, sustainable community and economic development, and land use planning.

Before joining FEMA, Ms. Erat worked with homeless families and individuals and addicts in recovery as a case manager and counselor. It was in this field of work that Ms. Erat honed her communication and analytic skills, realizing that the same advocacy skills used to secure housing and social services for a client can also be utilized to affect public policy.

MeshForum 2005 - Hotel - Essex Inn

MeshForum 2005 is pleased to announce that the Essex Inn is our official conference hotel.

They have extended a group rate of $129/night for a single room, $139/night for a double room for all MeshForum attendees. This rate is available from Sunday May 1st to Wednesday May 4th.

To reserve, please call the Essex Inn at 1-800-621-6909 or 1-312-939-2800, ask for reservations. Reservations for MeshForum at our group rate must be made by April 25th April 27th after that, reservations will still be accepted, but at their then current rack rate which will likely be significently higher.

UPDATE rate extended until Wednesday April 27th

Panel prep - Networks and Sales

The Red Couch: Interview: Buzz Bruggeman

Buzz Bruggeman will be at MeshForum and on our panel on Networks and Sales. In this interview Shel Israel covers Buzz's background, how he started his company Activewords, and the crucial role that word-of-mouth advertising and very importantly the blogsphere as played in the growth of Activewords.

At MeshForum we'll have a chance to continue this discussion and explore further and more specifically how Buzz has managed a large, active, and complex social network, and harnessed it (along with other networks) towards business goals.

Edward Vielmetti, SocialText

Edward Vielmetti is Vice President, Services at Socialtext, a leading provider of enterprise social software.

Edward is a networker and telecommuter based in Ann Arbor, MI. His primary focus at the moment is on the effective use of weblogs and wikis within corporate networks. He has been involved with Internet development since 1985 and with commercial use of the Internet since 1989. Edward has worked for a series of pioneering and industry-leading organizations that have build systems for Internet-based securities tradiing, the first commmercial Internet
service provider in Michigan, for network-based credit card processing, and for network security. He was a co-author with Nathaniel Borenstein of the 1996 Communications of the ACM paper "Perils and Pitfalls of Practical Cybercommerce". He has a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and is a member of the International Network of Social Network Analysts, the Information Architecture Institute, and the Cisco Systems Alumni Association.

Networks and the Law

MeshForum is about the importance of Networks across disciplines. At MeshForum 2005 we will hear from speakers as diverse as economists, phyiscists, entrepreneurs, military experts, consultants, and activists.

In a paper still in draft format, Thomas A Smith of the University of San Diego School of Law analyzes the case history of the US courts from a network perspective. His research was conducted in partnership with Lexis/Nexis who wrote custom software for him to calculate the citation linkages across US case history as well as the subset of just US Supreme Court cases.

While his paper is still in a draft form and thus unfinished in many places, his initial research findings support many conclusions about the network structure of US case law, showing that the structure of which cases get cited is complex but appears to be partially at least a good example of specific types of networks.

Even more relevant to MeshForum is that one of his primary points is that the body of US case law, as well as perhaps other relevant documents such as laws and legal journal articles, represents one of the largest, oldest, and most heavily documented examples of network data, and it also happens to be easily studied and analyzed. For one, case law unlike many other datasets is public records. For another, for centuries, long before electronic records, cases were uniquely identified and linked to each other via specificly formatted citations.

By studying this record it is possible to learn a great deal about how the network embodied within the legal profession builds upon the past, perhaps discovering specifically the importance of age vs. specifics of the case in determining future citations (i.e. a portion of citations may be a result of age not fitness, but a portion may be related to other factors than purely age). And further that this may change over time, i.e. there appears to be a pattern whereby over a certain age cases become less frequently cited.

I personally wonder if it would be possible to detect the impact of new technology on the citation records - i.e. the rise of Lexis/Nexis and other electronic search likely changed how past cases were researched and found - perhaps allowing new cases to be discovered and cited more quickly (i.e. without having to wait for a printed book to be published) and probably allowing some "fit" cases to be discovered independent of their level of citation - i.e. changing perhaps the network structure by allowing more links independent of age/link number effects to be formed.

In any case, it points out again why people from many industries are and should be interested in Networks. And shows to the value for network researchers of engaging with collogues from many fields.

Networks and Sales - selling cars in America

MeshForum 2005 will have a mix of speakers and panels on many different aspects of networks. On Monday, May 2nd one of our panels in the afternoon will explore the role of networks in sales. The specific focus of the panel will be on in particular word-of-mouth advertising.

In addition, however, other questions and thoughts about networks and sales will be considered, here is just one example of a question to be considered. Please post as comments other questions and register today to join us in Chicago on May 2-4 to hear the answers.

Selling Cars in America

Today the structures that support the sales of cars in America are very geographically centered. Most cars are purchased from local car dealers, who are licensed dealers for a limited number of new car brands. Most new car dealers also have a used car sales division, typically selling primarily cars received as trade-ins for new cars. Most car dealerships are small, often family owned, businesses.

In nearly every market there are a few exceptionally large dealerships and nationally there are a handful of large corporate chains (CARMAX for example). There are also auction houses and wholesellers who facilitate the large scale buying and selling of used cars, but who typically do not deal with the individual consumer.

The Internet has shifted the balance of power and as a result there are now many online car websites, such as the heavily advertised Vehix or Cars.com who provide information including dealer inventory and price information to facilitete the connecting of consumer to business.

So my question - does it still make sense that most special offers/radio ads/print ads etc for new cars are still limited to drivers within a specific geographic region? Cars are often distributed in a restricted manner to given geographic regions and seemingly many steps are taken by dealers to limit the sales of vechicles to buyers outside of the local region.

Perhaps this is because the business of cars is best understood not as a single transaction, but a long-term relationship, with repairs and multiple sales over the years being a key aspect to the success (currently at least) for a dealership?

In anycase, what do the lessons of Networks tell us about the Car business today? About the car business in the future? About strategies which players at any level in the car business might explore to give them an advantage and to exploit knowledge about networks, including word-of-mouth networks?

Are there examples we should look at? For example the successful launch of the Prius by Toyota or the Scion?

Do the networks that work on the used and "entry level" ends of the car business also hold true at more expensive levels? Are there tactics used, for example by the sales of "exclusive" brands such as the Maybach, which might inform sales of "massclusive" brands like the Scion?

MeshForum venue - HotHouse

MeshForum 2005 will be at the HotHouse, a non-profit performing arts space located in the near south loop of downtown Chicago. It has been described at "the most beautiful room in the city" by Chicago Magazine.

HotHouse is located at:
31 E. Balbo, between State & Wabash
Chicago, IL 60605

HotHouse is accessible by CTA:
the Red Line at the Harrison stop
the Brown Line at the VanBuren stop
the Blue Line at the LaSalle stop
the Orange Line at the Adams stop

Parking Information:
The 7th Street Garage located at 710 South Wabash has a special parking rate of $8.00 for HotHouse patrons. Simply pick up a coupon from the box office or bartender when departing.

Sean O'Leary, FEMA

Sean O'Leary is a Technological Hazards Program Specialist at FEMA Region V in Chicago, Illinois. He is a hazardous materials specialist and works on continuity of operations issues for the Great Lakes region. He has over 12 years of emergency response, planning, and management experience.

Prior to joining FEMA, Sean O'Leary worked as an environmental consultant, and worked for the Chicago Department of Environment and the Illinois Emergency Management Agency.

Rudy Garcia, Citigroup

Rudy Garcia is the Director of Business Continuity Management for Citigroup's Corporate and Investment Banking group (CIB), a leading force in the world's capital markets and a unit of Citigroup, the preeminent global financial services company. In this role, Rudy has global responsibility for the CIB's Business Continuity Planning and Crisis Management program.

Prior to joining Citigroup, Mr. Garcia was the Director of Enterprise Continuity Management for Fleet Boston Financial, the seventh largest bank in the United States. He had firm-wide responsibility for Business Continuity Planning, Disaster Recovery and Crisis Management programs covering the institutional, retail banking and financial business units.

Mr. Garcia is a 22-year veteran of Merrill Lynch where he held similar roles and ran the company’s Corporate Response Team. Among other things, the team handled the response activities during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in New York City.

In December 2003, Mr. Garcia was elected Chairman of the SIA Business Continuity Planning Committee, which is responsible for six subcommittees (Command Center, Exchange/Markets, Critical Infrastructure, BCP Best Practice, Industry Testing and Regional Issues) focused on business continuity for the Securities Industry Association (SIA). The committee's mission includes providing a forum for securities firms, industry organizations, and service providers to share specific plans and business continuity information. The committee is also a conduit between the securities industry, government legislators, and regulators and works to coordinate continuity readiness plan activities between the securities industry and the financial sector.

Prior to becoming the SIA Business Continuity Planning Committee Chairman, Mr. Garcia was the Chairman of the Command Center sub-committee for the Securities Industry Association (SIA) Business Continuity Planning Committee.

Mr. Garcia has an extensive background in strategic planning, trading, operations, public sector interaction, business continuity planning and crisis management within the financial services industry.

Small world network primer

Small World Network Primer from Judy Breck, author of Connectivity, the answer to ending ignorance and separation. It's an "unscientific attempt to introduce some ideas about small world networks, which defy visual illustration because they are virtual, complex and multidimensional." She uses both visuals and words to good effect.

Esther Dyson - Conversation on Social Networks

On Monday, May 3rd Esther Dyson will lead a conversation on Social Networks after lunch at MeshForum.

Editor-at-large at CNET Networks, host of the influential PC Forum, and founding chairwoman of ICANN, the international agency charged with setting policy for the Internet's core infrastructure, Esther Dyson has devoted her life to discovering the inevitable and promoting the possible. For more than 25 years, Esther has edited Release 1.0, a monthly report covering the worlds of technology, communications and the Internet. Esther chairs EDventure Holdings, an information services and investment company that she sold to CNET Networks in early 2004. She remains an active investor and player in strategic discussions and global policy-making concerning the Internet and its impact on society.

At Release 1.0 and in her private investment activities, Dyson focuses on emerging technologies, emerging companies and emerging markets. Among the topics she has covered for Release 1.0 recently are social software and social networks, registries of people and things, the Internet, the transformation of e-mail to "Meta-mail," identity management, and the use of "consumer" Internet services such as Yahoo! eBay and Google by small businesses.

By 1994, she had already explored the impact of the Net on intellectual property (among other things, why many software products are now turning into online services). In 1997, she wrote a book on the impact of the Net on individuals' lives, "Release 2.0: A design for living in the digital age." It includes a number of chapters about today's hot topics such as security, privacy, anonymity and intellectual property.

Dyson is also an active player in discussions and policy-making concerning the Internet and society. From 1998 to 2000, she was founding chairman of ICANN (the organization responsible for overseeing the Domain Name System). A variety of government officials worldwide turn to her for advice on Internet policy issues.

In addition, she donates time and money as a trustee to emerging organizations (Bridges.org, the National Endowment for Democracy and the Eurasia Foundation). For several years in the '90s she was chairman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

After graduating from Harvard in economics, Dyson began her serious career in 1974 as a fact-checker for Forbes and quickly rose to reporter. In 1977 she joined New Court Securities as "the research department," following Federal Express and other start-ups. After a stint at Oppenheimer covering software companies, she moved to Rosen Research and in 1983 bought the company from her employer Ben Rosen, renaming it EDventure Holdings. The daughter of an English physicist and a Swiss mathematician, Dyson started traveling in Eastern Europe in 1989 and eventually helped to fill the small but vital vacuum at the intersection of Eastern Europe, high-tech and venture capital, even as she remains active in the US and Western Europe.

You can follow Esther's travels via her Flickr photoblog or the "Where's Esther" page at Release 1.0.

Networks in Biology: from Protein Interactions to the Metabolism

A presentation by Dr. Eivind Almaas of the University of Notre Dame.

During the last few years, network approaches have shown great promise as a new tool to analyze and understand complex systems as disparate as the world-wide web, scientific collaborations, sexual contacts, and the power-grid of the Western US. However, in order to fully characterize complex networks, we need to look beyond their topology and incorporate their dynamical aspects. I
will start by giving an overview of the structure of biological networks with emphasis on the protein-interaction network and the metabolism, before discussing recent insights from applying network thinking to the plasticity and function of metabolic networks.

Dr. Eivind Almaas, University of Notre Dame

Dr. Eivind Almaas is a network researcher in the group of Prof. Albert-Laszlo Barabasi at the Department of Physics, University of Notre Dame. He received a Siv. Ing. degree from the Norwegian Institute of Technology, followed by a Ph. D. from The Ohio State University. Using his background and training from physics, his current research is focused on developing a better understanding
of complex systems through the use of network approaches. In particular, Dr. Almaas has developed tools to study the structure and dynamics of biological networks like the protein-interaction network and the bacterial metabolism. This research program has so far resulted in several publications, the most prominent a cover letter in the journal Nature (February 2004).

For more information, see Dr. Almaas' homepage and the network group at University of Notre Dame.

CFP: The 'Small Worlds' of Rural Europe: social networks, social capital and enterprise

The European Society for Rural Sociology is holding a conference that seeks to look at how social networks can help rural Europe. This call for papers officially closes next week, but have a look at the whole picture. The conference is the XXI Congress, A common European countryside?, "Change and continuity, diversity and cohesion in the enlarged Europe," 22-27 August, 2005 Keszthely Hungary.

Final CPF - ESRS (European Society for Rural Sociology) Working Group 2:

The 'Small Worlds' of Rural Europe: social networks, social capital and enterprise

Recent studies have reflected on the importance of both social networks and social capital in the small and medium land based enterprises that form the core of the social economy of rural Europe. With increasing policy emphasis placed on the multifunctionality of agriculture and the development of the food chain, the role of networks and the social capabilities represented by social capital have taken on a fresh importance. This panel seeks to explore the interconnections between social networks, social capital and rural development, with an explicit focus on the enterprise and its principals.

To that end we invite papers that explore:

• The modalities of social networks in rural areas, with particular references to networking between enterprises in the food chain.


• Explorations of the utility of the concept social capital in rural communities and the contribution it can make to analysis the process of rural development.
  
• Considerations of the different forms of networks or community building dynamics in both 'new' and 'old' European countryside.


• Empirical studies of the networks of rural enterprises,particularly adaptive responses by enterprises in the face of either new technologies or policy initiatives.


• Papers that seek to extend the existing methodology of networks through the modelling of social networks, ethnographic exploration or other innovations.

Our aim is to instigate a dialogue between the existing scholarship on role the enterprise in rural communities and extend it through new methodologies that reflect the impact of the economic forces of globalisation and the opportunities presented by policy initiatives. We would welcome contributions from postgraduate students as well as more established colleagues.

Please send, by 15 April 2005, your abstract for a paper (not longer than 300 words) to the working group convenors.

Panel - Broken Networks, Tuesday May 3rd 3005

Broken Networks: What goes wrong, how can you plan to make them more
resilient?

Much will be discussed at MeshForum on the power of networks, and on the interconnections that enable the power of networks to work.

But what happens when networks break? We'll explore breaks in networks, from
the physical, societal and communications networks that broke on 9-11, during the Tsunami, and during the August 2003 blackout to the business networks that get broken everytime companies reorganize or move employees from place to place.

What can we do to anticipate broken social networks in business or broken technology or communications networks, plan for them, and mitigate the impact?

What do experts do to analyze networks for potential breaking points? What lessons can your organization learn from these experts in business continuity, emergency management, homeland security, and business social networking to make a difference in everyday work, as well as future 'broken' situations?

This panel will be moderated by Howard Greenstein of NYU and will feature a mix of public and private sector experts, including Rudy Garcia of Citigroup and Sean O'Leary of FEMA and Donna Erat

Networking for academics (and others)

Networking on the Network: A guide to professional skills for PhD students by Phil Agre.

I have read probably dozens of articles and books on Networking, some very good, some only so-so. Thanks to the power of Del.icio.us I found this article by Phil Agre earlier this evening.

To quote an extended passage, relevant not just to a PhD student embarking on an academic career, but to anyone (especially anyone attending MeshForum):

(2) Networked individualism

Let us take the concept of an invisible college a step further. Imagine a vast diagram of all the professional networks in the world of research. In this diagram, everyone will be connected to everyone they know. Abstract as it sounds, such a diagram can actually be drawn with reasonably accuracy by following the citations in their published work. The analysis of these citation links is called "bibliometrics", and is a scholarly industry in itself. Throughout this article, I have been painting a picture of the structure of these relationships. When two researchers have become members of one another's professional networks, they maintain a sort of surveillance of one another. They read one another's published work, monitor one another's career progress, hear reports on one another through common acquaintances, update one another in periodic conversations at conferences, and so on. Their relationship has an architecture -- a structure and logic that are dictated largely by the workings of research as an institution.

On one level, the architecture of relationships in the research world has not changed much since the Renaissance. Scholars have always read each other's work, corresponded, traveled to visit one another, cooperated and competed, and so on. So what changes in the world of the Internet, not to mention cellular telephones, cheap air travel, and other technological advances? Those new technologies do not change anything on their own, but they do provide tools that people use to do more of the things that they already want to do. The institutions of research create tremendous incentives to keep in touch with the other members of your professional network, and that's what's happened: people are in much denser and more continuous contact with their professional contacts than ever before. It is only a slight exaggeration to say that we're heading toward a world in which everyone is a constant presence for everyone else. Technologies that are currently under development will propel this trend even further. Digital libraries, for example, will allow everyone to monitor everyone else's publications in real time, and cheap, high-quality video links will make it possible to organize seminars at a distance. While they will not eliminate face-to-face interaction altogether, these technologies will allow researchers to maintain even more continual contact than they do today.

This development is striking, and it counts as a new chapter in the history of the human person. Barry Wellman calls it "networked individualism". Networked individuals (such as yourself) are like air traffic controllers who, by using a video display and audio communications, constantly maintain a mental map of all the planes in their airspace. This effect can be quite tangible when you are reading your daily e-mail, and it can be especially tangible when you are working on a large-scale professional project, like organizing a conference, that requires you to keep track of the status of dozens or hundreds of individuals, or to reach out selectively into the space of individuals in your field to identify the best speakers, authors, referees, or meeting participants for a given purpose. As the world becomes networked, you will have to decide consciously how to manage the blizzard of communications that your network will entail.

Go read the rest to see both Phil's explanation of the "Invisible College" and where he goes next, the "Expanding Universe".