preprint version "Globalisation in science in 2005"

[David E. Wojick]

Dear Loet,

I am afraid I understand very little of what you have written. Not enough to grasp the answers to my two questions. You (seem to) say that transmission (via transactions) supplies variation to the network but I would think it was the primary process that constitutes the network. You say that the structure of the network is selective and I do not understand what that means. Do you mean that the structure takes the form it does because the people are selective in whom they communicate with? In that case I agree but, again, it makes transactions the basic unit.

Retention I do not understand, nor much of the rest. Meaning, degree of freedom, stabilization, etc. I use all these words but not in your way apparently. You are using a technical language that I do not speak. Is this the language of network science?  Is there something I can read to learn it? 

All my best,

David

At 02:36 AM 3/5/2007, you wrote:
>Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe): http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 
>Dear David, 
> 
>Indeed, there is always a substantive side to the information transmission: something is communicated. However, from the perspective of the network this mainly provides the variation. The network is spanned by these bottom-up processes, but then it is also a structure (it contains an architecture). The structure is selective. Because the network is changing, the selection mechanism is also at variance over time. Some selection can then be selected for stabilization. This provides the retention mechanism. 
> 
>So far, the metaphor is biological. However, in social networks one can expect one more degree of freedom because we also give meaning to the information exchange and the meaning exchanges feedback on the information exchanges. Therefore, some stabilizations can also be selected for globalization. Thus, one obtains a non-linear dynamics of communication. However, each communication also remains an "information transaction:" it is not either ... or, but both. Or even better: all four dimensions of probabilistic entropy.
> 
>The information transaction alone is just a vector. The network can be represented as a matrix. A network at each moment of time can be modeled as a cube of information. For example, a trajectory can be shaped within this cube. A trajectory which can be changed by (inter-)human intervention provides us with a hypercube of information (in four dimensions).
> 
>With best wishes, 
> 
> 
>Loet
>
>----------
>Loet Leydesdorff 
>Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
>Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
>Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 
><mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net>loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 
> 
>Now available: <http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581129378>The Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated. 385 pp.; US$ 18.95 
><http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126956>The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society; <http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126816>The Challenge of Scientometrics
> 
> 
>
>
>----------
>From: ASIS&T Special Interest Group on Metrics [mailto:SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU] On Behalf Of David E. Wojick
>Sent: Sunday, March 04, 2007 8:01 PM
>To: SIGMETRICS at LISTSERV.UTK.EDU
>Subject: Re: [SIGMETRICS] preprint version "Globalisation in science in 2005"
>
>Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe): http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html Loet (and all),
>
>This study is very interesting in the context of my http://www.osti.gov/science.world/ project. But on a tangential note, your mention of strong and weak links brings up a basic question about network analysis, about which I know little. 
>
>I have a conceptual model of science diffusion in which the basic element is the "information transaction." This is basically one person getting information from another. My reading your paper for example. Note that transactions have quantity as well, such as reading your email, your abstract, part of your paper, all of it, etc.
>
>My first question is, does every initial transaction between two people, no matter how slight, establish a link in the network? The alternative might be that certain thresholds of interaction must apply, such as co-authorship or citation. My second question is, do you think that the strength of a link might usefully be measured by the amount of information that passes between the people linked?
>
>If these issues are already discussed in the literature I shall be happy to look at it. It is important because the vast majority of transactions cannot be observed, just as in other cases of diffusion.
>
>Best regards,
>David
>
>At 04:11 AM 2/27/2007, you wrote:
>>Adminstrative info for SIGMETRICS (for example unsubscribe): http://web.utk.edu/~gwhitney/sigmetrics.html 
>>
>><http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/index.htm>Globalisation in the network of science in 2005:
>>
>><http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/index.htm>The diffusion of international collaboration and the formation of a core group
>>
>><http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/Globalisation.pdf>
>>[]
>> <http://www.leydesdorff.net/cswagner07/Globalisation.pdf><click here for pdf>
>>
>>Caroline S. Wagner
>>
>>SRI International, Arlington, Virginia, 22209, USA
>>
>>Caroline.wagner at sri.com; http://www.cswagner.net
>>
>>
>> 
>>
>>Loet Leydesdorff
>>
>>University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
>>
>>Kloveniersburgwel 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands
>>
>> 
>>
>>International collaboration as measured by co-authorships on refereed papers grew significantly from 1990 to 2005. International communications in science can best be studied as a network, since there is no political institution mediating relationships at that level: links self-organize largely through contacts made by scientists. As such, science at the international level shares features with other complex adaptive systems whose order arises from the interactions of hundreds of agents pursuing self-interested strategies. Communications at the international level appears to have grown significantly in the 1990s, with the addresses of many more countries evident in collaborative articles. By 2005, global communications appear to have reinforced the formation of a core group of highly cooperative countries. This core group can be expected to use knowledge from the global network with great efficiency, since these countries have strong national systems. Countries at the periphery may be disadvantaged by the strength of the core.
>> 
>>
>>----------
>>Loet Leydesdorff 
>>Amsterdam School of Communications Research (ASCoR)
>>Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX Amsterdam
>>Tel.: +31-20- 525 6598; fax: +31-20- 525 3681 
>><mailto:loet at leydesdorff.net>loet at leydesdorff.net ; http://www.leydesdorff.net/ 
>> 
>>Now available: <http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581129378>The Knowledge-Based Economy: Modeled, Measured, Simulated . 385 pp.; US$ 18.95 
>><http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126956>The Self-Organization of the Knowledge-Based Society; <http://www.universal-publishers.com/book.php?method=ISBN&book=1581126816>The Challenge of Scientometrics
>> 
>> 
>> 
>
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