IRLS614 Home

Last altered 2/7/03 Under revision

Homepage for IRLS614 Information Theory and Transfer

Martin Frické

Material may be added or changed on a continuing basis. One file that will remain untouched throughout is that containing the course requirements.

Introduction

Considerable interest has arisen recently in scale free networks and features typically associated with them such as connectors, small worlds, and degrees of separation.

Such networks are central to information science. The World Wide Web, the dissemination of information through society, and the citation patterns in literature are all examples of scale free networks. And, to amplify a little:- with the Web, Yahoo and Google are examples of connectors, the number of clicks to get from one site to another is the degree of separation, and parts of the Web are small worlds in so far as the degrees of the sites are small. And to mention a feature from the second example, librarians, often traditionally called 'gatekeepers', are one of the connectors in the dissemination of information.

Many questions of interest to information science can be raised within this theoretical structure. For example, we often want to know how authoritative a source is-- how likely it is for that source to provide correct and complete information-- and it seems that it may be possible to answer this in terms of the network structure or topology of links between that source and other sources. Much research is going on at present to use these ideas in Search Engine technology,

This course will consist of the study of scale free networks and their application to information theory and transfer.

Some important links

Enrolled students will be able to access the following documents from within WebCT.

Coursework and assignments

Course outline

Requirements

For more information, contact Martin Frické .

	Homepage for IRLS614 Information Theory and Transfer Martin Frické Material may be added or changed on a continuing basis. One file that will remain untouched throughout is that containing the course requirements.

Introduction	Considerable interest has arisen recently in scale free networks and features typically associated with them such as connectors, small worlds, and degrees of separation. Such networks are central to information science. The World Wide Web, the dissemination of information through society, and the citation patterns in literature are all examples of scale free networks. And, to amplify a little:- with the Web, Yahoo and Google are examples of connectors, the number of clicks to get from one site to another is the degree of separation, and parts of the Web are small worlds in so far as the degrees of the sites are small. And to mention a feature from the second example, librarians, often traditionally called 'gatekeepers', are one of the connectors in the dissemination of information. Many questions of interest to information science can be raised within this theoretical structure. For example, we often want to know how authoritative a source is-- how likely it is for that source to provide correct and complete information-- and it seems that it may be possible to answer this in terms of the network structure or topology of links between that source and other sources. Much research is going on at present to use these ideas in Search Engine technology, This course will consist of the study of scale free networks and their application to information theory and transfer.
Some important links	Enrolled students will be able to access the following documents from within WebCT. Coursework and assignments Course outline Requirements