Kevin Kelly has written: The Wikipedia is impossible, but here it is. It is one of those things impossible in theory, but possible in practice. I couldn't agree more: the scope of Wikipedia's success is stupefying to me. The project can teach us many things about how we can utilise small inputs from many to … Continue reading How Wikipedia Works: And How You Can Be a Part of It
Tag: research methodology
6.6 Degrees of separation on average
Stanley Milgram was a very innovative social experimenter. I will keep his experiments on authority for another blog post and instead will focus on his Small world experiment, which I have always found fascinating. In 1969 he tried to figure out whether the world was becoming a "small world" network by sending out packages to … Continue reading 6.6 Degrees of separation on average
Gang Leader for a Day
A couple of years ago I read Stephen Levitt's fascinating book Freakonomics. One of the most interesting themes covered was the economics of a drug selling gang in Chicago. Levitt had access to a couple of years of ledger books detailing the income and expenses for one particular chapter of the Black Knights gang. The … Continue reading Gang Leader for a Day