Theoretical Questions

What particular features of digital information networks, like presence of email groups and online communities, and the propensity of individual users such as bloggers to connect across them, most favored the growth of a initial meme into a global coverage?


How ought one to go about seeding such information transmiting and agenda setting phase transition? Does digital information networks has “weak points” such that if they were “hit” in precisely the right way, a small shock would explode like an epidemic, each successive decision generating the conditions for the next? If so, could one exploit that knowledge to enhance the likelyhood of a information cascade? Or alternatively, to prevent one. Could firewalls be inserted in networks to contain an information blaze? How does political control and censorship work and under what conditions they remain effective? And finally, how does information translate into action? (Keep on reading Duncan’s book.)