Showing posts with label networks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label networks. Show all posts

Jan 20, 2022

Mycorrhizal network

"Mycorrhizal networks (also known as common mycorrhizal networks or CMN) are underground hyphal networks created by mycorrhizal fungi that connect individual plants together and transfer water, carbon, nitrogen, and other nutrients and minerals." Mycorrhizal network, Wikipedia. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA ( CC ).

Apr 15, 2020

Diversity

April 2020

"(...) trees and plants aren´t simply competing with one another. (...) Instead, over millions of years vegetation has built vast collaborative networks to allow the system as a whole to thrieve. And that system includes us." Gary Ferguson, 2019. Eight Master Lessons of Nature. Image by Monica Pinheiro, license CC BY-NC-SA (CC).

Nov 12, 2015

electricity

Boyer, Dominic. "Anthropology Electric." Cultural Anthropology 30, no. 4 (2015) 531–539:
"These days, beyond spectacular weather events or spectacular failures like blackouts, electricity hides in plain sight, whether stored in batteries or flowing in the electrical wires that festoon our social landscapes. We conveniently ignore whole electroscapes until something goes awry."

Nov 20, 2009

social artefacts

From ongoing research project Networks and Mobility in Everyday life: Gustavo Cardoso, Maria do Carmo Gomes, Rita Espanha and Vera Araújo (200?), Mobile Society: mobile phones and social change 2006-2008
"Although cell phones are usually considered mere instruments at their owners’ service, they are also social artifacts. As a communication channel, they support the relationship with others. But, more than this, cell phones communication patterns is influenced by the social context in which it is used, and, as it can be activated from anywhere, at any time, cell phones took up also an active social role. But who communicates with whom? What is the structure of social networks created by communication through cell phones? Is cell phones use connected to a borderline blur between social contexts and individual practices, as our daily roles intertwine?"
(...)
"The present study allowed evaluating the level of Portugal involvement in the Mobile Communication Society, highlighting the main differences between socio demographic groups within the area of several use contexts. On the other hand, it contributed to identify user profiles, enabling to foresee the development path on this sector, where everyday new possibilities emerge. Its major contribution will be perhaps the opening of a discussion about the need to analyze mobility role in general, and cell phones in particular, in today’s society."
in LINI - Lisbon Internet and Networks Institute

Jan 20, 2009

ICT changing the meaning of being «at work»

"Nomadic use of ICT will challenge the meaning of ‘at work’ Nomadicity will make work patterns less fixed in time and space. This will create major challenges for both employers and employees. Making working life and education more sustainable in terms of working and studying from home intensifies the need for realising the nomadicity that ICT can provide."

Feb 21, 2008

downsizing & (in)communication at work

«We pay special attention to the structural capability of each IPN in the context of corporate downsizing, because downsizing is a common phenomenon in contemporary organizations that dynamically reconfigures the means by which people process information both within and across firm boundaries. Moreover, emphasis is placed on the specific contexts in which workforce reduction leads to concomitant increases in information processing and communication responsibilities for those remaining (i.e., “survivors”), and may thus produce adverse effects such as work overload and “burnout.”» (p.202) 
 
«(...) one underlying presumption shared by these various conceptual approaches is that organizations are information-processing entities whose survival and longevity largely depend upon how efficiently and effectively they handle information within and across firm boundaries» (p.204)

in Kwon, D.; Oh, W. & Jeon, S. (2007). Broken Ties: The Impact of Organizational Restructuring on the Stability of Information-Processing Networks. Journal of Management Information Systems, vol. 24(1).

May 31, 2007

mobile work practices

Kakihara, M., Sørensen, C. and Wiberg, M.(2002). Fluid Interaction in Mobile Work Practices. 1st Tokyo Mobile Roundtable, Mobile Innovation Research Program, Institute of Innovation Research, Hitotsubashi University. Tokyo, Japan. 30th-31st May:
"This is clearly the world of the contemporary mobile work mode. Mobile workers engage themselves in getting their job done not only at their formal offices but at various sites such as home, clients’ offices, hotels, moving vehicles and so on. Looking at their nature of work, there is no rigid boundary that determines whether inside or outside the office: anywhere can be their office. They permeate across “regions” and “networks.” In this sense, we can argue that mobile work is the fluid mode of working."

Mar 7, 2007

Sociedade em Rede

Castells, Manuel (2005). A Sociedade em Rede: do Conhecimento à Política. Gustavo Cardoso & Manuel Castells (Org.) A Sociedade em Rede: Do Conhecimento à Acção Política. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional - Casa da Moeda, pp. 17-30:
"Frequentemente, a sociedade emergente tem sido caracterizada como sociedade de informação ou sociedade do conhecimento. Eu não concordo com esta terminologia. Não porque conhecimento e informação não sejam centrais na nossa sociedade. Mas porque eles sempre o foram, em todas as sociedades historicamente conhecidas. O que é novo é o facto de serem de base microelectrónica, através de redes tecnológicas que fornecem novas capacidades a uma velha forma de organização social: as redes."(p.19)
"[As redes] podem, ao mesmo tempo, ser flexíveis e adaptáveis graças à sua capacidade de descentralizar a sua performance ao longo de uma rede de componentes autónomos, enquanto se mantêm capazes de coordenar toda esta actividade descentralizada com a possibilidade de partilhar a tomada de decisões. As redes de comunicação digital são a coluna vertebral da sociedade em rede, tal como as redes de potência (ou redes energéticas) eram as infra-estruturas sobre as quais a sociedade industrial foi construída, como demonstrou o historiador Thomas Hughes." (p.18)
Wishlist: Hughes, T. (2005). Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture. University Of Chicago Press.

PS [18/May/2007] - I already have Human-Built World: How to Think about Technology and Culture :-)

Aug 24, 2006

ScienceBlogs

ScienceBlogs:
"ScienceBlogs is very much an experiment in science communication, and being first also means being first to encounter unforeseen obstacles. We are learning as we go (and as goes the blogosphere) and appreciate your understanding and patience.

ScienceBlogs was created by Seed Media Group. Our mission is to change the way the world sees science -- from a separate island on the periphery of culture to the central driver of our times."