Tuesday, October 30, 2007
6:00 p.m.
Introduction by Dr. Tim McTiernan, Vice-President, Research,
UofT
Jon Kleinberg,
Professor of Computer Science, Cornell University
The Geography of Social and Information Networks
The rapid evolution of the on-line world over the past decade
represents a blending of social and technological networks,
and it is changing the ways in which we interact with information
and with each other. It is also the leading edge of a revolution
in measurement, with the digital traces of on-line interaction
enabling the study of social processes at unprecedented levels
of scale and resolution.
Making sense of this kind of data, and using it to shape the
networks we inhabit, raise many new questions --- among them,
how to synthesize information when there are a billion sources
providing it; how to reason about privacy in a world where
almost every transaction is recorded; and how to develop the
scientific principles that can relate individual behavior
to global properties of large populations. The resulting challenges
require new ideas in mathematics, computing, and the social
sciences, and point to opportunities at the emerging interface
of these disciplines.
Jon Kleinberg is a Professor in the Department of Computer Science
at Cornell University. His research interests are centered around
issues at the interface of networks and information, with an
emphasis on the social and information networks that underpin
the Web and other on-line media. He is a Fellow of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the recipient of MacArthur,
Packard, and Sloan Foundation Fellowships, the Nevanlinna Prize
from the International Mathematical Union, and the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences Award for Initiatives in Research.
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