tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999686744433629981.post934289475868915092..comments2024-02-14T22:06:08.851-08:00Comments on Augmented Social Cognition Research Blog from PARC: Model-Driven Research in Social ComputingEd H. Chihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06360447323238002978noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999686744433629981.post-34079198814066511482010-06-18T16:54:55.360-07:002010-06-18T16:54:55.360-07:00@Joe: I remember reading about generative platform...@Joe: I remember reading about generative platforms in that article. Ideas have indeed become more social. Our group has been recently looking into understand information diffusion models, which does seem to take on more generative flavors.<br /><br />@Jon: Models are a proposal for saying what we might understand about the data underneath. They are most definitely wrong in one way or another. After all, Newton was sort of wrong until Einstein corrected parts of it, and even Einstein's models are not a complete description of the real world. It doesn't make Newton's work or Einstein's work pseudo-science.<br /><br />@randall: I wasn't so much trying to place everything into neat little piles, as much as offering a way to think about the kinds of models we might want to build. Indeed, in the talk, I mentioned how some models are both explanatory and predictive and generative all at the same time. It does not necessarily mean the models are more useful the more categories they cover, however.Ed H. Chihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06360447323238002978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999686744433629981.post-48246776264285287282010-06-16T01:52:22.839-07:002010-06-16T01:52:22.839-07:00hey ed---interesting stuff. from your slides, i w...hey ed---interesting stuff. from your slides, i wasn't quite able to suss out your categorization of models was to be applied, however. are you just trying to clarify in what respects a generative model (viz. information theory) is useful for capturing relevant features of delicious? the categories you describe are, of course, far from mutually exclusive; and indeed, one might think that the work that you want generative models to do is better done by models in other categories. (there has, of course, been a lot of ink spilled in the philosophy of science and the philosophy of social science about the proper connections between these various functions that a model might serve---but, as i said at the top, it's not clear to me whether getting clear on that is important for your talk or not.)<br /><br />all the best.randallhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02572983020113458581noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999686744433629981.post-73550084688592611192010-06-15T20:26:06.825-07:002010-06-15T20:26:06.825-07:00I've seen so much Wiki-Phrenology over the las...I've seen so much Wiki-Phrenology over the last 10 years that it keeps flashing me back to the days when that phamous phrenology pic appeared on the cover of just about every other cognitive psych book that came out.<br /><br />The picture worth a thousand cautionary tales was of course a way of reminding ourselves that pertinent data collection and precise theory both depend on a thorough familiarity with the relevant factors in the domain of interest.<br /><br />Deja vu all over again …Jon Awbreyhttp://mywikibiz.com/Directory:Jon_Awbreynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999686744433629981.post-70615619427984118722010-06-15T08:54:01.289-07:002010-06-15T08:54:01.289-07:00Great presentation - thanks for sharing the slides...Great presentation - thanks for sharing the slides, and some explanatory notes about some of the themes.<br /><br />Your discussion of "generative models" reminded me of some of the points that Tim O'Reilly has recently been making about "generative platforms" in <a href="http://opengovernment.labs.oreilly.com/ch01.html" rel="nofollow">open government</a> (Gov 2.0) and other areas where participatory platforms can promote real change, a theme that was sparked by Jonathan Zittrain's book, <a href="http://futureoftheinternet.org/" rel="nofollow">The Future of the Internet ... And How to Stop It</a>.<br /><br />One of Tim's observations, in particular, harks back to your early point about all models being wrong (or shown to be wrong eventually, as more data and/or new insights become available): "open, generative systems eventually become closed over time, losing their innovative spark in the process".<br /><br />Given the rapid pace of innovation in social computing, I imagine the most we can hope for are iteratively generative models (and platforms).Joe McCarthyhttp://gumption.typepad.comnoreply@blogger.com