COMMENTARY The Coming Ad Revolution by (SFI Trustee) Esther Dyson

The discussion about privacy is changing as users take control over their own online data. While they spread their Web presence, these users are not looking for privacy, but for recognition as individuals -- whether by friends or vendors. This will eventually change the whole world of advertising. The current online-advertising model will become less effective, even as it gets increasingly sophisticated.... This approach (called behavioral targeting and already in service by ad networks that track users through so-called tracking cookies) undercuts traditional online publishers, who employ content to lure users and to sell adjacent ads....This does not mean that traditional online advertising will go away, just that it will become less effective. Value is being created in users' own walled gardens, which they will cultivate for themselves in real estate owned by the social networks. The new value creators are companies -- like Facebook and Dopplr -- that know how to build and support online communities.

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EBay cuts listing fee for sellers at online auction website

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - EBay said on Tuesday it is cutting fees it charges people to offer items for sale and raising standards at the online auction website. In a move aimed at staving off increasing competition from the likes of Google and Craigslist, eBay is trimming fees it charges aspiring sellers by as much as half. This is the first time eBay has offered incentives and discounts to sellers since it was founded in 1995 by (Santa Fe Institute Trustee and) French-born Iranian computer programmer Pierre Omidyar.

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SFI Trustee Michael Mauboussin (Legg Mason Capital Management) in Harvard Business Review's "Breakthrough Ideas for 2008"

(Santa Fe Institute Trustee) Michael Mauboussin says that as computing power grows and networks unleash the wisdom of crowds, the unique value of experts in making predictions and solving problems is steadily narrowing. This trend, “the expert squeeze,” doesn’t necessarily mean that expertise will become dispensable, only that organizations must change how they use experts.

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Dartmouth researchers develop computational tool to untangle SFI Professor Rockmore creates a tool to untangle complex data

December 17, 2008 / SFI External Professor Daniel Rockmore and colleagues created the “partition decoupling method” (PDM) which combines the partition scrubbing method and the hierarchical spectral clustering method. The PDM would be used for decomposing the correlation networks of the markets. The end result would reveal interdependencies in the network components. This information would be useful in risk management and portfolio construction. It could also be used with complex systems other than the financial market such as the brain or political orientation.

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SFI Trustee Featured in International Herald Tribune

In a May 20 article entitled "Software Brings Gamelike Play to the Workplace," SFI Trustee J. Leighton Read (Alloy Ventures) commented on "whether work would not be better if it were not like a videogame." Read and CISCO co-sponsored "Collective Intelligence in Synthetic Environments" in February, 2007. (http://www.santafe.edu/network/events.php?pFilter=past).
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Cormac McCarthy highlighted in New York Times

An April 10 article in the New York Times by Caryn James entitled "Web Sites and TV Talk Shows Puncture Holes in the Cloak of Invisibility," highlights SFI Fellow Cormac McCarthy's interview with Oprah as a sign of the vanishing cult of invisible celebrity.
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Study Could Affect HIV Vaccine

In today's issue of Science Magazine SFI Professor Tanmoy Bhattacharya and Visiting Researcher Bette Korber report the findings of a study that could affect an HIV vaccine. Friday's New Mexican quotes Korber as saying, "Since HIV escapes the immune system of the human host by mutation, and the virus finds multiple ways of escaping immune recognition, our findings have practical implications for defining relevant variants for inclusion in vaccine antigens"
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New Book by Scott Page, SFI External Faculty, and John Miller, SFI Resident Faculty

Complex Adaptive Systems: An Introduction to Computational Models of Social Life" This book provides the first clear, comprehensive, and accessible account of complex adaptive social systems, by two of the field's leading authorities. Such systems--whether political parties, stock markets, or ant colonies--present some of the most intriguing theoretical and practical challenges confronting the social sciences. Engagingly written, and balancing technical detail with intuitive explanations, Complex Adaptive Systems focuses on the key tools and ideas that have emerged in the field since the mid-1990s, as well as the techniques needed to investigate such systems. It provides a detailed introduction to concepts such as emergence, self-organized criticality, automata, networks, diversity, adaptation, and feedback. It also demonstrates how complex adaptive systems can be explored using methods ranging from mathematics to computational models of adaptive agents."
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Diverse Teams, Wise Crowds, and Informed Experts

The Business Network is pleased to announce its next Topical Meeting, held March 16 in Chicago, featuring SFI Trustee Michael Mauboussin and SFI External Faculty Scott Page. This meeting is by invitation only, but please contact Kay Frew (kfrew@santafe.edu) with questions.
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New Book by Scott Page, SFI External Faculty

"The Difference - How the Power of Diversity Creates Better Groups, Firms, Schools, and Societies" by SFI External Faculty and University of Michigan Professor, Scott E. Page was released January 15, 2007. In this landmark book, Page redefines the way we understand ourselves in relation to one another by revealing that progress and innovation may depend less on lone thinkers than on diverse people working together and capitalizing on their individuality. Page changes the way we understand diversity - how to harness its untapped potential, how to understand and avoid its traps, and how we can leverage our differences for the benefit of all.

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"More Than You Know": A Business Week "Best Business Book of 2006"

" More Than You Know: Finding Financial Wisdom in Unconventional Places, " by SFI Trustee and Business Network Member Michael Mauboussin was named one of Business Week's "Best Business Books of 2006. " Mauboussin, of Legg Mason Capital Management, writes, "You will be a better investor, executive, parent, friend, or person if you approach problems from a multidisciplinary perspective." Click here to read the full article. "More Than You Know" was distributed to Business Network Members in June 2006.

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SFI Chairman Bill Miller Highlighted in Fortune Magazine

SFI Trustee and Chairman of the Board Bill Miller, of Legg Mason Capital Management, was highlighted in a recent November issue of Fortune Magazine. The article, "The Greatest Money Manager of our Time," noted Miller's close affiliation with SFI regulars such as Prof. Murray Gell-Mann, SFI President Geoffrey West, Norman Johnson, and SFI Trustees Joy Covey, Gary Bengier, Jim Rutt, and David Weinberger. Click here to read the full article.

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