Péter Érdi: RANKING. The Unwritten Rules of the Social Game We All Play

A book chapter written by

Hayley Beltz, Timothy Rutledge, Raoul R. Wadhwa,  Péter Bruck,  

Jan Tobochnik, Anikó Fülöp, György Fenyvesi and  Péter Érdi

Ranking Algorithms: Application for Patent Citation Network 

in: Information Quality in Information Fusion and Decision Making

Ediitors: Éloi Bossé and Galina L. Rogova (Springer, 2019)

How do technologies evolve in time? One way of answering this is by studying the US patent citation network. We begin this exploration by looking at macroscopic temporal behavior of classes of patents. Next, we quantify the influence of a patent by examining two major methods of ranking of nodes in networks: the celebrated “PageRank” and one of its extensions, reinforcement learning. A short history and a detailed explanation of the algorithms are given. We also discuss the influence of the damping factor when using PageRank on the patent network specifically in the context of rank reversal. These algorithms can be used to give more insight into the dynamics of the patent citation network. Finally, we provide a case study which combines the use of clustering algorithms with ranking algorithms to show the emergence of the opioid crisis. There is a great deal of data contained within the patent citation network. Our work enhances the usefulness of this data, which represents one of the important information quality characteristics. We do this by focusing on the structure and dynamics of the patent network, which allows us to determine the importance of individual patents without using any information about the patent except the citations to and from the patent.

 

…of the MBA market at a particular moment. They reflect the prevailing conditions such as salaries, jobs available and the situation at a school at the time the survey was carried out. Results of rankings can be volatile, so they should be treated with caution. The various media rankings of MBA programmes all employ a different methodology. None is definitive, so our advice to prospective students is to understand the ethos behind each one before deciding whether what it is measuring is important for you.

Read more about MBA ranking methodology:

Full-time MBA ranking methodology, 2018

 

Hungary is 87th in the 2019 World Press Freedom Index compiled by the international organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF), a far fall from last year’s ranking.

Hungary Slips 14 Places in RSF World Press Freedom Index

In recent years, Hungary’s position has fallen significantly. In 2011, it was in 44th place, but the next year, it slipped 16 spots. According to RSF, this happened because “the initiation of controversial media laws” led to “self-censorship becoming a wide-spread practice in newsrooms.” The World Press Freedom Index of Hungary has been falling ever since it received a ranking of 71 in 2016. Countries are scored from 0 to 100, with 0 being the best and 100 the worst. According to the 2019 RSF report, with a score of 30.44, press freedom in Hungary is currently at a ‘problematic’ level.

In an article in the New York Times with the title You underestimate yourself  (the electronic version has a more eye-catching title: You Are Not as Good at Kissing as You Think. But You Are Better at Dancing.

Could you read the paper, and make comments on it? Here are some items from the paper:

Do you think you are an above-average driver, as most people do? How do you compare with others as a parent? Are you better than most at dancing? Where do you rank in your capability to save humanity?

Netflix Ranked as No. 1 Fastest-Growing U.S. Brand in 2019

Netflix — whose name has practically achieved verb status — was the fastest-growing brand from 2018-19 among American companies, according to a new study by Brand Finance, a global brand-valuation consulting firm.

The streamer’s estimated brand value more than doubled over the past year, growing 105%, to $21.2 billion, per the study. Brand Finance calculates values of brands using a “royalty relief” methodology, which involves estimating the likely future revenue that are attributable to a brand by calculating a royalty rate that would be charged for its use.

“Netflix delivers high-quality and varied programming to anyone with internet access and a credit card,” said Alex Haigh, Brand Finance’s valuation director. “The platform has embarked on a disruptive approach to media services and now has incumbents in the market looking over their shoulder.”

It would be so great to see the algorithm, which “estimating the likely future revenue”.

Please provide a description of your work (about 250 words), written at a level suitable for a potential purchaser. We will use this as the basis for cover copy and promotional material directed at individual customers.

We like to see who is stronger, richer, better, or more clever. Since we humans (1) love lists, (2) are competitive, and (3) are jealous of other people, we like ranking. We can rank some situations in objective ways: students ranked in ascending order based on their heights reflects objectivity. However, many “Top Ten” (or twenty-one, thirty-three, etc) lists are based on subjective categorization and give only the illusion of objectivity. In fact, we don’t always want to be seen objectively since we don’t mind having a better image or rank than deserved. The book applies scientific theories to everyday experience by raising and answering questions like: Are college ranking lists objective? How do we rank and rate countries based on their fragility, level of corruption, or even happiness? How do we find the most relevant web pages? How employees are ranked ? The book is offered to people whose neighbor has a fancier car; employees, who are being ranked by their supervisors; managers, who are involved in ranking but may have qualms about the process; businessmen interested in creating better visibility for their companies; scientists, writers, artists, and other competitors who would like to see themselves at the top of a success list; college students who are just preparing to enter a new phase of social competition. The Reader will engage in an intellectual adventure to better understand the difficulties of navigating between objectivity and subjectivity and to better identify and modify her place in real and virtual communities by combining human and computational intelligence.   How would you briefly describe your work to a non-specialist, such as a bookseller or sales representative (about 100 words)? Everybody with whom I have talked in the last two years has seemed to agree that the topic of ranking is hot. Ranking of people, schools, products, countries, and just about everything else is part of our daily lives. We are in a paradoxical relationship with ranking: ”ranking is good because it is informative and objective; ranking is bad because it is biased and subjective, and occasionally, even manipulated.” RANKING combines the application of scientific theories to everyday experience with entertaining personal stories and helps the Reader to both compete successfully and accept the eventual fiascos.

Two Nobel prizes in literature will be awarded this year, to make up for the lack of one in 2018 while the scandal-plagued Swedish Academy attempted to get its house in order, it was announced on Tuesday. Last year’s Nobel was withheld for the first time since 1949 after the Swedish Academy, the august institution that selects the winners, was hit with a sexual misconduct scandal that saw the husband of one member imprisoned for rape. Following a meeting on Tuesday, the Nobel Foundation, which executes Alfred Nobel’s will, announced that “the steps that the Swedish Academy has taken and intends to take will create good opportunities for restoring trust”, and that laureates for both 2018 and 2019 will therefore be announced this autumn.

Read the Guardian!