David Lazer on 'Life in the Network' 

 Please join us this Wednesday (9/26) when David Lazer, Associate Professor of Public Policy and Director of the Program on Networked Governance at the Kennedy School of Government,  will present "Life in the Network: The Coming Era of Computational Social Science".  Professor Lazer provided the following summary of his talk: 

 An increasing fraction of human behavior (especially relational behavior) leaves substantial digital traces-- whether in the form of phone logs, e-mail, instant messaging, etc. Further, increased computational power allows the analysis of these digital traces-- e.g., through natural language processing, statistical analysis of massive (millions of individuals) longitudinal data, etc. These two points suggest that we are on the precipice of dramatic new insights into collective human behavior. I will discuss the potential future of a "computational social science", with reference to four ongoing research projects. 

 As always, our workshop begins at 12 noon in CGIS-Knafel room N-354.  And a free lunch will be provided.