The idea of
networks is incredibly flexible. It's been applied to the Medici getting power in FLorence, the spread of AIDS in different populations, finding terrorists, the WWW itself, and much more. It's flexible and powerful because it's abstract. But that makes it a bit tricky. I'll try to explain.
The idea of a norm is also very powerful; we all live in a world full of norms, and when we try to violate them, we swim upstream.
I think these concepts have applications to dailykos and to elections. But I need the help of kossacks who know more about dailykos and politics. If you'd like to read or help (or both!) join me below the fold.
A
network is a set of
nodes connected by
links. The nodes can be any kind of entity: People, families, kos diaries, computers, neurons.....you name it. The links can be any kind of connection: Having sex, being friends, recommending, being linked, again.....whatevever. Here's a link to a page with a nice little diagram:
Network diagram
Here each node is a person, it doesn't say what the links are. Somne key concepts:
A component is a set of nodes that are connected, by a path of any length; in the diagram there is one component. If there was another person, not connected to anyone, there would be two components.
degree is the number of links going to a node. Jane has degree 1, Andre has degree 4.
distance is the shortest path between two nodes. Ike is distance 1 from Jane; Carol is distance 2 from Heather.
Distance can be important to determine the likelihood of something travelling along the links, whether it be a disease, a social value, whatever.
centrality is the general concept of how central a node is; there are various measures of it. One popular one is [betweenness], but don't let the formula scare you. First, think of all the pairs of nodes, called dyads. If there are three nodes (A B and C), there are 3 dyads (AB AC and BC). For any dyad, there is a shortest path between them, this is called a geodesic. One can list all the geodesics in a network; the betweenness of a particular nod is the proportion of all geodesics that include that node.
Cohesion is a measure of how tightly bound a component is. If there are lots of connections, then there is a lot of cohesion. Cohesive networks are hard to disrupt.
There's lots more, but enough for now.
Norms are defined many ways, but the general idea is that it is set of rules that most people in a community obey. These norms may be enforced by means of sanctions. For example, on daily kos, there are norms against posting conspiracy theories, and there are norms against being a troll. Sanctions may be enforced from without, by an authority (e.g. here, the authority is Markos; in the wider world, it could be the police) or by the community itself (would you like some rabid lamb kebabs?) There is evidence that norms enforced from within are soemtimes more powerful than those from without.
OK.....so, what has all this to do with elections? Or with dailykos? Well, the whole of dailykos is a network. The nodes would be people. The links could be defined in various ways: Reading a diary, recommending, commenting, or whatever. Let's go for the broadest definition and say reading a diary links you to the writer. Several people have reported that many people at yearly Kos were lurkers who had never posted a comment or a diary. This is one big network!
Mobilizing the network is best done by people who are highly central, and in ways that agree with the norms of the group:
When a frontpager recommends that we donate money to candidate XXX, it gets a lot more response than if I do it. And both would get better response if XXX is a progresive Democrat. Recommending Hillary doesn't get the same response as recommending Russ.
So, what about politics?
Well, aside from here, each of us is a part of many networks along which norms could spread. These norms would be thinking progressively, voting Democratic and so on
How can we harness this in the most powerful way?
Well, I have some ideas, but I am sure you have more. Here are some of mine, some of which are partially implemented already:
1. In an election, first, find the Kossacks who can vote in it. Figure out, with the help of Jotter's wonderful data, who is central in that group. Find out if it is a component at all; if not, make it so by having someone central here on dailykos suggest it. Get these people on the same page, get them communnicating by writing diaries and commenting; have them subscribe to each other. Maybe there could be a technical improvement whereby you could subscribe to a tag.
2. We have experts on lots of issues. Some are well-known: darksyde on science; teacherken on education; Jerome a Paris on energy. But I bet there are a lot more. Since I know some statistics, I am finding other quantitative people. How about groups with tags for expertise, so that when some wingnut makes some argument, we could have a whole team ready to debunk them?
As for the site itself, if you've followed some of jotter's and redlmi and smilev's diaries, you've seen some things already. If you haven't, go check them out! They're cool!
REdlami diary
dmsilev diary
jotter diary