Nishanth Sastry Network Science: Science/buzzword?

Nishanth Sastry

Network Science: Science/buzzword?

Not a buzzword

0Too many successful applications0 Network motifs in biology0 “Communities” and clusterings of various kinds0 Social network phenomena0 …

0Does not mean it is not invoked as a buzzword0 Becomes a buzzword because of other successes

But: is it a science?

My Background

0Computer scientist interested in data networks0Led to network science because of PSNs (IEEE TMC, 2011)

0 data delivery using human contact networks is slow because it relies on rare contacts

0 the network is resilient, and delivery is not much slower even if many of the rare contacts end up not happening

0PhD looked at Social Network Support for Data Delivery0Currently run SIMPLEX workshop series at WWW

(Simplifying Complex Networks for Practitioners)

A Practitioner’s Viewpoint

0 “Systems” and communications researchers rely on a bag of tricks/tools/theories/approaches0 Information Theory0 Game Theory0 Public Key Crypto0 …

Is Network Science another more than “just another” tool? Is it a “Science”?

What is a science?

0Are social sciences sciences?0Computer Science, or…?

0 Computer art?0 Computer technology?0 Software Engineering0 Informatics a mostly European term

CS is young but older than network science. Still there are disagreements (See Denning, CACM’05)

The route to normal science

0 Key foundation of science is a paradigm0 Attracts critical mass of adherents away from other work0 Leaves open sufficient problems for others

0 Paradigms create science by building on top of previous work 0 Possible as all adherents agrees with the paradigm’s viewpoint

0 Paradigms lead to scientists formulating precise, directed questions

Network science has potential to

become a scientific practice

The checklist method

0 Is there an established paradigm? Yes0Does it allow new ways of thinking? Yes0Does it follow the scientific method?

0 Yes, very much so. Theory mostly backed by empirical data and validation (See Barabasi Nature Physics doi:10.1038/nphys2188)

0 Can you build careers out of it? Apparently so!

0 Are there network science departments (like CS)? Not yetNetwork science has potential to

become a scientific practice

Dangers on the way

0 Are there Network Science Departments?0 No! This can be a danger Network Scientists could get splintered

into multiple fields where applications are to be found.

0Powerful method for data analysis. Could become creepy!0 Regulation might limit research (similar to stem cells)

Nishanth Sastry

Not a buzzword. But…

Is it more than a tool/theory/approach?