Mindmap #11: The Network Society

global society illustration

Castells represented 500 page of network goodness, and I savored (quickly) every morsel. I struggled to limit what I planned to include in this week’s mindmap, settling on a tried and true method: I use the table of contents to organize my new nodes. I linked Castells to Foucault, Latour, and aspects of ecology. I…
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Reading Notes: The Neuronal Network

neural network visualization

My Digital Brain? The network made of neurons is digital. That’s what I took from this statement about neuron firing: “A neuron can only fire or not fire; there is no ‘slightly activated’ signal from a neuron” (“Neurobiology” 2013, p. 6). I took this activity to be analogous to digital 0s and 1s: a digitally…
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Mind Map #10: Seeking Homeostasis

Narrative Ecology Framework flashcards photo

The ecology of my mind map seeks homeostasis, a natural balance among its many theories. My mind map has become, in Charles Darwin’s words, a “web of complex relations” (cited in Spellman, 2007, p. 4).  Well, maybe not as complex as all of nature, but if we follow the formula for the value of a…
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Mind Map #2: So Foucault Enters this Rabbit Hole…

Network - image

On Shelley’s recommendation, I started thinking about how our theorists begin answering the questions I posed in my initial mind map. And I started drawing connections between two sets of tags: the authors who represent theories we’ve studied and the terms network, node, hierarchies, and connections. What I discovered surprised me. I’ve already made more…
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Mindmap #1: The Rabbit Hole

follow white rabbit stencil

At this point in the class, more questions than answers face me. In one sense I recognize the relative simplicity of a network: a connection of nodes. On the other hand, I quickly complicate my simple definition with questions: Are nodes relatively static? Are they predefined via framework or developed on the fly through the action of…
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Object of Study: Google Analytics

Google Analytics screen capture

I have chosen Google Analytics as my object of study for ENGL 894 Theories of Networks. More specifically, I have chosen the Google Analytics account I manage on behalf of the University of Richmond School of Professional and Continuing Studies. Although this account is a sub-account on the larger University of Richmond Google Analytics roll-up…
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