t’s been a tough economy, and recently the unemployment level topped six percent. We typically think about unemployment in its short-term consequences, but there are also long-term impacts on individuals and their connection to the community.
There’s new long-term research that shows a layoff early in your career makes you more less likely to become involved [...]

Here’s an interesting question. Let’s say you use an instant messanger at least once-a-month. How far are you removed from any other person who sent an IM across the network that month?
Leskovec and Horvitz, two researchers at Microsoft, conducted a planetary-wide study of MSN Messenger traffic for a single month (over 180 million users). They [...]

Are social networks like a fishery digital data, or muscles? It’s a complex question that vexes many people who examine about social networks and social capital. In order to even frame the question, we need to explore economic theory.
Let’s start with the fishery model. No one owns the sea or the fish within it. Certainly, [...]

You’ve probably heard that a college education provides a road to a bright future–challenging careers and financial wealth. That’s what the American education system has promised us for years upon years.
. . . “The average American with a college diploma still earns about 75% more than a worker with a high-school diploma and is less [...]