Algorithm for group success?
Want to know how to make your clique, group or organization last? A new algorithm can help you do just that.
Tamás Vicsek and colleagues studied the patterns of information exchange within two groups of individuals — collaborating scientists and mobile phone users — over time. From this, they devised an algorithm to let them study how information exchange affects group stability.
Small groups, they report, have a few strong relationships at their core. And as long as these persist, the clique remains. But the strategy doesn’t work for large communities, where change seems a good thing. Continuous change helps large groups to remain stable, and over time, nearly all members are exchanged.
The findings help shed light on the basic relationships behind community evolution, and offer insights into the fundamental differences between the dynamics of small groups and large institutions.
CONTACT
Tamás Vicsek (Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest, Hungary)
Tel: +36 1 372 2755; E-mail: vicsek@angel.elte.hu