Networks, Crowds and Markets

Networks, Crowds and Markets
Prof. Gal Oestreicher
 

This is a course on how the social, technological, and natural worlds are connected ,
and how the study of networks sheds light on these connections. The “social network” has captured popular imagination because of the spread of social media, however we have always been creatures of our networks—whether those networks involve family, villages, tribes, or Facebook. The topics we will cover include: social network structure and its effects on business and culture; understanding how the structural properties of networks help us understand social capital, power, ties and closure; the propagation through networks of information, fads and content; power laws, network effects, and " rich-get-richer "phenomena; using networks for prediction ;leveraging information networks for web search; networks and social revolutions, and the melding of economics, machine learning, and technology into new markets, such as
"prediction markets "or the peer markets that comprise the “sharing economy”. The grade will be composed of group assignments ,in-class exercises and a final paper .
 

Evaluation
60% Group assignments (some in-class)
10% Personal assignments
30% Final Paper