We have analyzed the fully anonymized headers of 362 million messages exchanged by 4.2 million users of Facebook, an online social network of college students, during a 26 month interval. The data reveal a number of strong daily and weekly regularities which provide insights into the time use of college students and their social lives, including seasonal variations. We also examined how factors such as school affiliation and informal online "friend" lists affect the observed behavior and temporal patterns. Finally, we show that Facebook users appear to be clustered by school with respect to their temporal messaging patterns.

Rhythms of Social Interaction: Messaging within a Massive Online Network

We introduce an automatic configuration mechanism that generates the most relevant information to be presented to limited attention users of information-rich media. It also guarantees to maximize their total expected utility from the information they receive. A computationally efficient algorithm is used to assign an index value to each information item, which then determines whether or not a given item appears in the top list presented to users at a given time.

The Economics of Attention: Maximizing User Value in Information Rich Environments

If you thought the malaise was particular to the music industry ... well, not so.

The avant-garde isn't what it used to be.

It seems clear to a lot of us that there is a problem ...

What kind of art does the future deserve? How should we advance?

Much of the [current] work is repetitive and derivative in a way that starts to resemble planned cultural obsolescence.

A strange cycle has set in, whereby the most valuable attribute an artist can have is "promise." With a lot of big bets being placed, the artist has to be both young and verifiable. In other words, marketable. But almost none of our superstar artists have delivered on their promise.

This might be of interest to those who read these recent threads:

DRM, Statutory Licensing, Broadcast Flags, and Satellite Radio
Steve Jobs - Thoughts on Music

And, going way back (in MemeStreams years), perhaps even this one:

The Problem With Music

Out of the box

This is an oldie but a goodie. I happened onto it today and figured I'd re-recommend it.

Separate the facts from the fads: A groundbreaking, five-year study reveals the must-have management practices that truly produce superior results.

Excel at Four Primary Practices:

Strategy: Devise and maintain a clearly stated, focused strategy.
Execution: Develop and maintain flawless operational execution.
Culture: Develop and maintain a performance-oriented culture.
Structure: Build and maintain a fast, flexible, flat organization.

Embrace Two of Four Secondary Practices:

Hold on to talented employees and find more.
Make industry-transforming innovations.
Find leaders who are committed to the business and its people.
Seek growth through mergers and partnerships.

What Really Works

Here's a CENTCOM General in a recent interview:

"The Internet is the most important venue for the radicalization of Islamic youth."

"I see 16-, 17-year-olds who have been indoctrinated on the Internet turn up on the battlefield. We capture them; we kill them every day in Iraq, in Afghanistan."

"It's a battle of perceptions, and al Qaeda understands it. And America needs to understand it."

Maybe, if we got the American schoolchildren to write their letters to Iraqi, Iranian, Saudi, Syrian children ... or, they could make videos to them, and post them on YouTube.

Update: Juba the Sniper is all the evidence you need.

Jihadists Use Internet as Recruiting, Networking Tool

Here's a senior US government official, speaking at a recent conference:

"Al Qaeda has the ability to use the virtual and physical network, all tied together in this center of gravity of this radical Islamist ideology. The fact that it uses the most advanced methods of communications to get what it needs to be done is truly remarkable."

"It has truly got its stuff together in terms of fighting as a network."

"It is a generational fight; it’s not one that we’ll see completed any time soon."

"This enemy is ingenious."

Building Global Network, Denying Safe Havens Essential in War on Terror

A Taliban official told the newspaper: "There is gloom in our ranks."

Separately, suspected pro-Taliban militants blew up a barber shop and a music shop in Pakistan's Bajaur tribal region on the Afghan border for violating orders to cease "un-Islamic" practices.

Taliban 'Gloomy' After Pakistani Arrests

A few hours after meeting a former KGB general outside a spy museum here, an outspoken critic of the Kremlin became engulfed in the kind of intrigue he studies when he was shot Thursday outside his suburban Maryland home.

The shooting occurred four days after the critic, Paul M. Joyal, warned on “Dateline NBC,” the television news magazine, that a “message has been communicated to anyone who wants to speak out against the Kremlin: ‘If you do, no matter who you are, where you are, we will find you and we will silence you in the most horrible way possible.”

Critic of the KGB Is Shot Outside His Home -- In Maryland

“I am trying to design a foolproof plan to prevent any negative externalities,” she said.

Good luck with that ...

Campus Exposure

He saw the letters of support from schoolchildren, and he wondered why there was not more support from adults.

Honestly ...

Returning, Safe, After a Year’s Service in Afghanistan