P R O J E CT G U T S
Social Networks
NetsWork Live- build a network with straws and elastic
Description:
In NetsWorkLive, players are interconnected to one another via a number of
links. A player can compose messages to most other players, but can only
pass messages directly to those few players he/she is linked to. This forces
players to cooperate and determine how to get messages to their
destinations. In addition, players can be grouped randomly into clusters (see
example where five players are in each of clusters A, B and C), organizational
groups with many internal connections and fewer connections to players in
other clusters, which adds an additional level of interesting behavior.
Materials needed:
Notecards
Rubber bands
Elastic thread or string
Straws
Post-it notes
Pens
Name tags
Preparation:
Facilitators must make up the bracelets ahead of time. Each person gets a
bracelet with two links. Each link is a string threaded through a straw ending
in another rubber band.
Directions:
Rules for the 1st game: (# of links = 2, no clusters)
Each node/player is given a rubber band to wear around their wrist that has
two strings each threaded through a straw, and ending in rubber bands
attached. Each player silently selects two people to directly connect to, and
one person to receive the message, and writes it on the card.
Next, the connections are made (facilitators walk around and help) by giving
each “connected node” the other end of the string.
Now each node constructs a question to the person to whom they are
sending a message, and writes on the post-it:
1) Sender to receiver (Irene to Celia)
2) The question (Where were you born?)
The post-it gets sent to another node attached to the straw.
When the instructor says “go” the message is passed. Each message gets
passed to a node, the node writes their name on the list, and the node
passes it along to one of the nodes they are connected to. Players can
receive, pass, or drop messages to and from other players. You can only pass
one message at a time. Outstanding message go in your mailbox (post-it gets
stuck to you.)
When you receive a message addressed to you hang on to it and confirm
delivery by yelling “I received a message from _____”
Note that some messages get quickly to their intended receivers and others
get stuck. Why?
At the end of a time period of message passing, tell everyone to stop and
have those who received their message say the following:
1) Who they are (I’m Celia)
2) who sent them a message (I received a message from Irene)
3) what was the question and the answer (The question was “where were
you born?” the answer is “I was born in Philly”)
4) how many hops it took to get there (5 hops)
Next game:
Split the players into 3 clusters
Each player makes 2 in-cluster and 1 out-of-cluster connection.
Again select a person to send a message to.
Play again. Send message on the string by writing it on a post-it and taping it
on a straw.
Notes for teachers:
The concept of networks is present throughout many disciplines, from social
networks to computational network to ecological networks to protein
networks. Some good introductions to networks can be found in:
* How Everything Is Connected to Everything Else and What It Means Albert Laszlo Barabasi
* Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age - Duncan Watts
* Small Worlds : The Dynamics of Networks between Order and
Randomness (Princeton Studies in Complexity) - Duncan Watts
Challenges
At the start of the game, one might typically just let students connect to
whom they want and then try to see how many different people they can
get messages to in the allotted time. This number will typically be small, and
there may even be messages that can't ever get to their destinations due to
isolated clusters. Have the players think about the distribution of messages
that ultimately did and did not get to their destinations. Were there certain
characteristics of messages that made it? Were there bottlenecks? You might
challenge them to create a more efficient network that would allow each
person to get messages to more people. You might also throw in some
challenges like pulling out two or three people from the network (downed
nodes) and seeing how that effects the network, and whether it is possible to
design a network that is resilient to such change.
Some other challenges and tasks include:
* Have each message be a question, that the player wants to know the
answer to. This works well for icebreakers.
* At some point during the game, give one player a message that asks
them to pass on a certain codeword to other players. Make the message
private and tell them that all subsequent passes must be private. See how
long it takes to "infect" the whole group with the codeword and think about
network characteristics that would make that more efficient.
* Imagine that each message pass has a cost. Can you design a network
that will limit the total cost of messages moving through the system? If you
know the most common routes how would that change the design. If there
were waiting time costs as well, would that change the design?