| Spring 2006 UMASS
Amherst Operations Research / Management Science Seminar Series |
Date: Friday, February 10, 2006 Time: 11:00 AM Location: Isenberg School of Management, Room 112 Co-sponsored by the National Center for Digital Government |
| Speaker: Professor David Lazer Program on Networked Governance Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government Kennedy School of Government Harvard University Cambridge, MA |
| Biography: David M. J. Lazer,
Associate Professor of Public
Policy, teaches
courses on regulation and public management. Lazer has an overarching
interest in the process by which connections emerge among actors and
the consequences that the resultant network has for individuals and the
system. He most recently completed a book on the use of DNA in the
criminal justice system: DNA and
the Criminal Justice System: The Technology of Justice.
With the support of the NSF, he is also in the process of launching a
Web-based forum on the use of DNA in the criminal justice system (www.dnapolicy.net).
He has also coauthored a series of papers on the diffusion of
information among interest groups and between interest groups and the
government. He holds a PhD in political science from the University of
Michigan. |
| TITLE: The Parable of the Hare
and the Tortoise: Small Worlds, Diversity, and System Performance |
| Abstract: Whether as team members
brainstorming, or cultures experimenting with new technologies, problem
solvers communicate and share ideas. This paper examines how the
structure of these communication networks can affect
system-level performance. We present an agent-based model of
information sharing, where the less successful emulate the more
successful. Results suggest that where agents are dealing with a
complex problem, the more efficient the network at disseminating
information, and the higher the velocity of information over that
network, the better the short run and lower the long run performance of
the system. The dynamic underlying this result is that an inefficient
network is better at exploration than an efficient network, supporting
a more thorough search for solutions in the long run. This suggests
that the efficient network is the hare - the fast starter - and the
poorly connected network is the tortoise - slow at the start of the
race, but ultimately triumphant. |
| This series is organized by the
UMASS Amherst INFORMS Student Chapter. Support for this series is
provided by the Isenberg School of Management, the Department of
Finance and Operations Management, INFORMS, and the John F. Smith
Memorial Fund. The Chapter wishes to thank Professor Anna Nagurney, its
Faculty Advisor, for her help and support of this series. For questions, please contact the INFORMS Student Chapter Representative, Ms. Tina Wakolbinger, wakolbinger@som.umass.edu |