Networking Theories

Nagurney, Lovink, & Galloway & Thacker

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) Background of Networks

3 Basic Network Components: Nodes: Transportation intersections, homes, work places Links/Arcs: roads, railroad tracks Flows: cars, trains

Transportation is one of the most essential forms of networks Used to facilitate face-to-face communication & provide access to

other networks Dates back to ancient Rome Today, electronic tolls deal with similar congestion problems as in

ancient times

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) The Study of Networks

Scientific approach seeks to determine patterns within networks Studying networks involves:

Forming applications as mathematical units Studying models from an quantitative perspective Creating algorithms to solve the ensuing model

Seeks to find & study networks where they go unnoticed Energy Online

The studying of networks has elicited 3 classic problems: The Shortest Path Problems

Moving flows in the most efficient way from an origin to 1+ destinations Examples: Transportation, telecommunications, minimizing storage

needed for books in a library The Maximum Flow Problem

Figuring out the capacity of the network Examples: Network reliability testing, building evacuation

The Minimum Cost Flow Problem Finding the flow pattern that minimizes the total cost without exceeding

capacity Examples: warehousing and distribution, biology, finance

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) Characteristics of Networks

Congestion has become a larger & larger problem through the years

Behavior of users is important to consider Individuals vs. the group Can lead to alternative behaviors and paradoxes

Braess Paradox Adding additional links/arcs to a network can sometimes reduce

the overall performance of the network when the flows individually choose their route

Mainly an observation of car traffic behavior, but also relevant to telecommunications and Internet networks since they are non-cooperative networks

Highlights the cost to society concerning user optimization vs. system optimization

Decisions surrounding networks can impact how a network is used

Example: Where’s the best place to locate a nuclear plant?

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) The Supernetwork

Can be connected, multilevel, or multi-criteria Important to study how people interact with these networks

What tools are used for decision-making? What happens when multiple decision-makers attempt to make

certain choices? Important to study both the individual and the collective

Tools for studying supernetworks: Network Theory Optimization Theory Game Theory Variational Inequality Projected Dynamical Systems Theory Network Visualization Tools

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) The Supernetwork

Common Applications: Telecommuting/commuting decision-making Teleshopping/shopping decision-making Supply chain networks with electronic commerce Financial networks with electronic transactions Reverse supply chains with e-cycling Knowledge networks Energy networks/power grids

Supernetworks can integrate social networks by examining types of relationships

Becomes the “flows” With higher relationship levels, comes:

Reduction in costs Reduction of risks Increase in value

Idea of social responsibility A dynamic, ever-changing network

Networks - The Science-Spanning Disciplines (Anna Nagurney) Questions:

Throughout her presentation, Nagurney stresses the importance of transportation networks, noting that it’s not only essential for face-to-face interaction, but also to provide access to other networks. The growing popularity of social networks is spawning less of a need for face-to-face interaction. Will this, over time, begin to lessen the need for transportation networks?

Nagurney notes that in social networks, higher relationship levels results in a reduction in costs and risk with an increase in value. Do you agree with this?

The Principle of Notworking (Geert Lovink)

Important to analyze culture as a resource, rather than a commodity “The culture of the Internet is at hand” Important to recognize the user over the system

The Internet is constantly changing, in “a permanent flux” Experts are still having trouble recognizing this Still see the Internet as a commodity

Important to study how users interact with the Internet, but current research is insufficient New media needs a language of its own that’s not so reliant on

science The scientific approach has led to the lack of considering outsider

viewpoints Networks are, “complex techno-social environments that defy

simplistic reductions”

The Principle of Notworking (Geert Lovink)

A network’s focus is on the inside, with “creativity, communication, and self-organized cooperation” as its main values

Search engines and browsers are not necessarily neutral tools Rather they have certain built-in plans New media enthusiasts must help mediate how they’re used

But while networks can be used to foster creativity & cooperation, they are also used to control Protocol Theory Gilles Deleuze’s “control society” idea

“Notworking” is an important aspect of today’s networks Elements in yesterday’s networks that go awry help shape today’s

networks Spam, viruses stem from the “frustrated mind”

The Principle of Notworking (Geert Lovink)

Questions: Lovink explains that the commercial attempts during the dotcom

era to, “validate online communication as ‘value,’ measured in ‘page views’” was “wrong.” Do you think this is continuing today with social networks? Is it the wrong way to measure websites?Do you agree with Lovink that, “research into net cultures entails more than the study of ‘virtual communitie,’” or do agree with Nagurney’s more scientific way of studying networks?

Do you think the culturization of the Internet is at hand?

Is Lovinks notion of “notworking” what makes up today’s networking?

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

Review 1: Daniel Gilfillan Commends Galloway & Thacker for presenting a contemporary

understanding of networks Networks are used to control

Deleuze’s idea of “control societies” & “dataveillance” Not necessarily a person’s physically visible movements that

networks want to track, but their, “patterns in consumer purchases, telecommunications usage, and network access protocols”

Used to monetize online networking relationships, rather than promoting its surrounding culture

Concept of pushing past the systems of control Take advantage of openings within it to lead to something new and

progressive “Flaws” within networks make this progressive change possible A new type of asymmetry is needed for this to take advantage of

inconsistencies within a network “Antiweb” and “an exceptional topology” Need both hierarchal systems of control & a decentralized system of

distribution

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

Exploitation of these flaws are possible through: Vector: a medium where an action or motion can take place Flaw: weaknesses within the network, enabling the exposure of the

vector Transgression: The “exploit” then creates a change within the

ontology of the network, making the “failure” of the network an alteration in its topology

Looking at the “unhuman” factors in networks can help facilitate this progressive change

“Then during the passage of technology in this…unguardedcondition, it will be sculpted into something better,

something in closer agreement with the real wants and

desires of its users.” (-G&T)

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

Review 2: Nathaniel Tkacz “Protocol is a set of rules or codes that enables, modulates, and

governs a specific network and also a general logic of governance for all networks.”

A form of control & way of directing information Compares to the Panopticon in Foucault’s disciplinary society

But, also allows for the exploitation of the flaws within it “Protological struggles,” emerge that entail, “discovering holes in

existing technologies and projecting potential change through these holes”

The book’s limitations: Its structuring as a network left points not fully developed Relies too heavily on the “old centralized/decentralized dichotomy”

Didn’t hold firm to concept that networks can take numerous forms Confusion concerning what is (not) a network

Found the idea behind the authors’ protocol/exploit argument less persuasive as it moved from the specific points to the more general

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

Author Response: Alexander R. Galloway & Eugene Thacker Key point in book: “the uncannily anonymous, network tactics

demonstrated by ‘pliant and vigorous nonhuman actors.’” Networks as beyond human, post-human Viruses don’t thrive because the network is “down,” but

because of the very fact that they’re working as they should be

The authors’ use of Foucault & Deleuze go beyond what was mentioned by the 2 reviewers

Looked to build upon Foucault’s work in biopolitics and security (not discipline-surveillance)

Not just looking at Deleuze’s “control society” idea, but how this connected to his interest in immanence and univocity

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

End with 2 overarching questions: What should be done concerning networks? “Should we as

humans learn to be more like nonhumans?” 3 possible responses:

“’Master of the universe’ attitude”: Exploits, such as viruses, must be eliminated

Agnostic: Acceptance that the world is at the mercy of technology

Optimistic: Superficially dry and lifeless world, emergent and new at core

“Can there be an ontology of networks?” Must there always be an outside mediator to the network? Can a network topology express itself from within?

Review of The Exploit: A Theory of Networks

Questions: Do you think there can be an ontology of networks?

Do you agree with any particular one of the philosophical answers Galloway & Thacker give for their question of, “what should be done?” What other answers could be considered?

Even though Galloway & Thacker explain that they weren’t looking to build upon Foucault’s concept of the discipline-surveillance and the Panopticon, as Tkacz mentioned in his review, do you still think it can relate to the “control society” nature of networks?