|
***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org *****
Developing sets and related membership functions from a few examples is a
basic pattern-matching activity that humans do amazingly well. It follows
from the skill of drawing out a general pattern from specifics, a type of
inference Peirce referred to as abduction. The task of guessing the sets
people have in mind from a short list of prompts can range from the easy to
the supremely difficult, which is why it makes for some fun games (think
scattergories, etc.). Are the prompts a few elements of the set? Things
they have in common (i.e., parameters in a membership function)? Part of a
definition by elimination?
As to usefulness for SNA, I think the question is best posed the other way
around: are there applications or extensions of SNA that can be used to
produce better search. To this question, I expect the answer will very
clearly become yes over the next few years.
Cheers, -mk.
Mark T. Kennedy, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Strategy
Department of Management and Organization
University of Southern California Marshall School of Business
e-mail: [log in to unmask]
web: http://www-rcf.usc.edu/~markkenn
tel 213.821.5668 | fax 213.740.3852
-----
³Well, sir, if things are real, theyıre there all the time.²
³Are they?² said the Professor; and Peter did not know quite what to say.
-- C.S. Lewis, from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
_____________________________________________________________________
SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social
network researchers (http://www.insna.org). To unsubscribe, send
an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line
UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.
|
