mvalente.eu/mv.* Heavy Mental Stuff

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Political and Market Entrepreneurs
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 08 00:26:21 GMT

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialism

“The iron law of oligarchy is a political theory,
first developed by the German syndicalist sociologist
Robert Michels in his 1911 book, Political Parties.
It states that all forms of organization, regardless of
how democratic or autocratic they may be at the start,
will eventually and inevitably develop into oligarchies.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_law_of_oligarchy

The end result? A mixed economoy, a false and stunted mix
of socialism and capitalism… A gray consensus between black
and white that, being gray, satisfies neither those who prefer
black nor those who prefer white. The result of taking the
“best” from each side? Crony capitalism, an oligarchy of
corrupt businessmen and corrupt politicians…

Crony capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crony_capitalism

Capitalists generally oppose crony capitalism as well,
but consider it an aberration brought on by governmental favors
incompatible with true capitalism. In this view, crony capitalism
is the result of an excess of socialist-style interference in the
market, which requires active corporate lobbying to reduce red tape.
They point to the relatively higher levels of interaction between
corporations and governments that are considered more socialist,
taken to its maximum in the form of nationalization of industries.
Even if the initial regulation was well-intentioned (to curb actual
abuses), and even if the initial lobbying by corporations was
well-intentioned (to reduce illogical regulations), the mixture of
business and government eventually proves poisonous.

Burton W. Folsom, Jr., in his book The Myth of the Robber Barons,
distinguished those that engage in crony capitalism – designated by
him “political entrepreneurs” – from those who compete in the marketplace
without special aid from government, whom he calls “market entrepreneurs”.

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Why Pseudo Friends Decrease Social Network Values
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 08 23:30:21 GMT

Everyone must agree that social networks provide enormous
value to its participants. And its pretty clear that the value
of a social network will be larger depending on the number of
participants: the more people there are in a network, the more
value it can provide.

But does the value of a social network derive simply from
the number of participants? Or shouldnt we consider that some
value is aditionally derived from the number of connections
made?

For each of the two referred ways of measuring network
value, we have previous proposals: Metcalfe’s law and Reed’s
law.

Metcalfe’s law proposes that the value of a (social) network
is proportional to the square of the number of users (N), that
is to say V=N^2. A network with 2 users is valued 4, one with
5 users 25, one with 10 is worth 100.
A similar law states that the value of a network is rather
dependent on the number of unique connections, that is to say
V=N(N-1)/2, but this is asymptotically equivalent to V=N^2.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metcalfe%27s_law

Another proposal, Reed’s law, states that the value of a
network is much larger that the two previous formulas and
predictions. Reed’s law states the value of a network is really
dependent on the number of possible subgroups of network
participants (users). Mathematically this is expressed as
V=2^N-N-1, which grows much faster than Metcalfe’s law and its
derivation.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reed%27s_law

Can we thus assume that the value of a social network grows
infinitely? That there’s no upper boundary? That on a network
where everyone is connected to everyone else the value is
astronomical? Wouldnt that mean that instead of waiting for
users to connect to each other, social networking sites should
just go ahead and connect everyone to everybody else?

This obviously goes against common sense. What then is
the value of a social network?

I propose that the value of a network, as per Reed’s law,
is dependent not on the number of possible subgroups but on
the number of *existing* subgroups. This, of course, is a
number between 1 (the whole network is a group) and 2^N-N-1.

This *actual* number of subgroups should then be used as
the number of participants in a meta-network (a network of
groups), with its valued derived from Metcalfe’s law (ie.
V=N^2 or V=N(N-1)/2.

It can thus be shown that people who add friends or
followers (or any other type of connection) without any
type of discrimination are actually decreasing the value of
the network (by decreasing the number of existing subgroups).
Equivalently, social networks who allow for indiscriminate
connections or dont put up any barriers to connectiviy, will
eventually see their value dwindle.

At the limit, where everyone is connected to everyone
else, the value of the network, using the original Metcalfe’s
law is 1 (V=1^2=1). This is certainly kinder than the the
value derived from its equivalent V=N(N-1)/2.

In a social network where everyone is connected to
everyone else, the value of the network is 0.

The people collecting virtual pseudo friends are actually
transforming social networks like Twitter into a tragedy
of the commons.

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Three Fundamental Questions
Date: Wed, 12 Mar 08 02:56:21 GMT

“What is the difference between a Democracy and a Republic?”

“Who is John Galt?”

“Where am I? What year is this? Who’s the President? Aaaargh!..”

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Os Proximos 4 Meses
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 08 11:33:21 GMT

Agora que a minha saida do MJ esta fechada, vamos ver
se nos proximos 4 meses consigo finalizar a ja tao atrasada
tese de mestrado. Pensada em 2004, depois de um paper feito em
2003, ja so foi proposta em 2006 e caminha a passos largos
para teorizar e concluir aquilo que ja sao realidades…

http://mv.asterisco.pt/Files/MV%20Master%20Thesis%20Proposal%20Social%20Software.pdf

— MV

Path: mv.asterisco.pt!mvalente
From: mvale…@ruido-visual.pt (Mario Valente)
Newsgroups: mv
Subject: Manobras Imorais
Date: Sun, 09 Mar 08 10:09:21 GMT

Ha quem ache que um programeta de TV que so ve/vota quem quer
ou um conjunto de fasciculos que so compra quem quer sao uma
“manobra imoral de apagamento da memoria”…

http://grandesportugueses.rtp.pt/
http://www.correiodamanha.pt/cm/mkt/salazar/index.asp

Por contrapartida, o tumulto e violencia contra a criacao
de um simples museu ou a liminar mudanca de nome de uma ponte
cuja construcao e um facto, sao momentos de grande “moralidade”
e momentos “imparciais e objectivos” demonstrativos de uma visao
“desempoeirada” da nossa Historia…

http://www.urap.pt/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=118&Itemid=39
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXpK6vQts_U

Sao os chamados “momentos” Trotski…para mais tarde recordar…

http://listverse.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/soviet-fun-1.jpg
http://www.socialistalternative.org/literature/trotsky/assassination.html

— MV