The Nature of Network. (Nodes and Flow)

There are a total of 2 articles for us to read.

First is related to Nodes and Flows.

Another is Time and Space.

--------------------First Article (Nodes and Flows)-----------------

In short, message Felix Stadler wanted to convey is that nodes and flows are equally important. Without one of the parties, another will either be dead or DEAD.

To make myself understand more of this, I think it is best to describe nodes as...

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the frying pan.

Stadler stated that nodes are the ones that process and direct the information. So, just like a frying pan, when one put the raw food in, with the heat, it'll process and come out as a edible dish, which consider as the new information here. Well, I don't know how well it work for you guys but definitely making me to have a clearer picture of what exactly a node is.

Besides that, as far as my understanding goes in this article, nodes will definitely give a great help in company that controls that market share as there are plenty of inputs and outputs go on. A slight mistake will returned with a big consequences. Hence, without info, flow is just nothing but plain noise and without nodes, flow will be dead.

4 important keys were being discussed in Stadler's article.

Interdependency

It simply meant it depend on each other. Information is the relation which arises within the environment. One fascinating point that were mentioned in the article is the quote quoted by Marshall McLuhan saying that

The "Meaning of meaning" is relationship

Indeed, that is really true. Although it's just a simple word, I never try thinking what it meant until he stated that. In the network. Like what I mentioned in the earlier post. Everything is interconnected. Everything is just about the relationship as if without it you can't continue to go on to the network. It's just like a chain.

Change

This point totally reminds me of the butterfly effect. A slight change will lead to a major difference. Like what Stadler said

"One significant change generates total change"

Imagine, if the statement of "the cockroach is in the car!" were sent out as a piece of information and without you knowing it changed to "the cockroach is on the car!" Can you even imagine what will happened next? Relating it back to the first point - interdependency. Just because everything is interconnected, that is why just a small change generates different consequences.

Time-boundness

Just like a piece of news, everything require to be timely! Think, who would want to read a news back in few days ago when there is a new hot issue being discussed a few hours ago? Unless you're trying to catch up some late news; the news is related to you; you're interested on the certain piece of news; you ARE the one who wrote the news, or you'll never want to read something outdated. Agree?

Differentiation

As simple as what the word meant. Information is different as long as they can make a difference. It looks abstract but if you understand it, it really do have a point. Try figure it out! Differences make a change. Just like the media person. Every company tries their best to get a scoop so that they can get more attention/rates from the audience. And more importantly, to differentiate themselves from the other agencies. Sounds easy? It's way harder than what you imagine.

These 4 points are just like the 4 keys of an information ecology. I totally agree with all of these. In fact, I find it similar to the chapters that I've learnt before in Introduction of Mass Comm. Do you guys think so too? Tell me! =)

Second article will be updated soon! Hope I got this right this time!