Web Biology 101

Web Biology 101 Phil Blything Director Glow New Media

“… the Internet is the most complex and interconnected thing that mankind has ever produced…” Phil Blything, Last Thursday, about teatime

COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEMS
Dynamic network of agents acting in parallel, the control of a CAS tends to be highly dispersed and decentralized.
Coherent behaviour in the system tends to arise from competition and cooperation among the agents themselves.
The overall behaviour of the system is the result of a huge number of decisions made every moment by many individual agents.
CAS require “Emergence” and “Self Organisation”

EMERGENCE
The World Wide Web (WWW) is a popular example of a decentralized system exhibiting emergent properties. (Wikipedia)
No central organisation
Emergent order from apparent chaos

SELF ORGANISATION
Self-organization is a process in which the internal organization of a system, normally an open system, increases in complexity without being guided or managed by an outside source.
Self-organizing systems typically (though not always) display emergent properties.

EXAMPLES OF C.A.S.
The Cell
Stock Market
Embryo
Biosphere & Ecosystems
Immune System
Ant Colonies & Social Hymenoptera

BIOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
Taxonomy
Ecosystems
Feedback
Self Organisation
Competition
Fitness for environment
Behavioural Ecology

INTERNET EXAMPLES
digg / del.icio.us
upcoming
Technorati
Wikipedia
Google
Last.fm
facebook

DISCUSSION

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Web Biology 101

by blything on Sep 20, 2007

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Web Biology 101 — Presentation Transcript