Happening now:

Exciting notes:

  • Office hours may change from week to week, and will always be on Teams if not also in person. Always check the Teams calendar for confirmation.
  • Deadlines for assignments: The 11:59 pm on really means any time on that day. Please try to set an earlier deadline for yourself that works with your schedule.

  • For week 27 (April 18 to April 22), please consume the following material (in reverse order):

    Week 27, 2022/04/18 to 2022/04/22:

    Slides covered:
    Organizations

    Lectures:
    #52 (first 34 minutes):
    Organizations and Correlated networks.



    We explore the model of organizations introduced in the previous episode. By adding informal links to a substrate hierarchy, we find a basic typology which includes core-periphery networks, team-based networks, random networks, and and multiscale networks. Under high pressure message passing, a simulation of problem solving with great uncertainty, core-periphery and multi-scale networks fare well, but the only multiscale networks show resilience to catastrophic failure.

    #51
    Robust, deep-problem-solving organizations.



    What kinds of organization networks are resilient to failure under pressure, and which ones do well when uncategorized failures, even catastrophes, occur? We talk about Toyota recovering from a manufacturing disaster, ambiguous problems, collaborative search for knowledge, Ronald Coase, transaction costs, the Bank of Evil, possible network structures beyond hierarchies, and more. How do we solve problems we can't even describe? How do we model this? Multiscale networks will be winners.

Previously on ...

The PoCSverse is on the road. Lectures for week 10 (November 1 to November 5) will be online. See stories.

Office hours for Thursday, September 30 will now run from 2:30 pm to 3:30 pm.

  • The introductory basics for the PoCSverse:

    This is a short note to welcome you to PoCS, Vol 1., now in its 16th Season. PoCS, Vol 2. will follow up in Spring, 2022.

    Everything remains fine.



    E-v-e-r-y-th-ing.



    (PoCS is a fun-but-very-serious course.)

    Be safe.

    Things to know:

    1. The Deliverator has been building the course for many years and has a full set of lecture slides online coupled with a storehouse of clips and lecture-long videos. New videos will be added as needed. And of course, things keep changing in the world and relevant videos may be added throughout the semester.
    2. The context of PoCS, Vol.1's 16th Season is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
    3. PoCS has always a great deal to say about pandemics and social contagion, and did so in 2020. Unfortunately, there will be yet more to say this time round in 2021.
    4. Like every season, we will work to adapt and improve PoCS throughout the semester but acknowledge that everyone involved may be confronting and overcoming new kinds of difficulties.
    5. Instructions will appear here and on Microsoft Teams throughout the semester (you're on the page now).
    6. Michael Arnold will be the ARD (Assistant to the Regional Deliverator) for the course.
    7. The course tweets under the handle @pocsvox. Tweets appear on the instructions page (where you are now). You do not have to follow the Twitter account but it's a good way to hear of updates.
    8. For office hours, we will likely be interacting through Microsoft Teams (you will be signed up automatically).
    9. We also have a Slack space for all students in Complex Systems and Data Science courses and programs (invitation will be sent via email).
    10. Archived versions of all courses are listed here:
      https://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/teaching/.

    Plan for the course:

    1. We will lay out the course through retellings of Stories of the PoCS.
    2. All clips and slides will be stored and organised here and here.
    3. There will be 11 assignments and 1 project (small groups).
    4. There will again be no dioramas. Because 2020 and now 2021.
    5. Assignments and project updates will be due by 11:59 pm on Fridays.
    6. Grades and assignment submission will work through Blackboard (the only use for the course).
    7. We will determine when office hours works best for everyone in the first week. We may have to adapt throughout the semester.

    As for every edition of PoCS, the Deliverator encourages you to work together in groups.

The tweetses: