Network

The term Network has a number of different meanings, including

• A system to deliver programs to multiple broadcast stations is called a television network or a radio network depending (obviously) on whether the programs are for Television or Radio, respectively.
• When people meet with each other either for socializing or for assistance, the practice is sometimes referred to as Networking. Informal meetings of people are sometimes referred to as the Old Boy Network.
• Network is also an Academy Award-winning film.

A wide variety of systems of interconnected components are called networks. Specific examples include:

• transport networks,
  • roads,
  • railroads,
  • shipping routes and
  • airlines,
  • pipelines (gas, petroleum, water, sewage),
• electric circuits - a network of electrical components.
• electricity networks (electric power - generation, transmission and distribution.)
• social and/or business networks. (studied in, say, sociology)
  • criminal networks
• telecommunications networks
  • computer networks, which transfer information between computers. (Specific configurations include star networks and grid networks.) The Internet is a large-scale computer network. Also, a website and the whole World Wide Web are networks of webpages, a link web.
  • public switched telephone networks, which route audio signals from one telephone to another
  • radio networks, which create and distribute radio programming
  • television networks, which create and distribute television programming
  • financial networks.
• network externality in economics

General-purpose mathematical models of network structures and associated algorithms have been developed in graph theory.

Networks can be characterized in a number of different ways. For example, many networks are Scale-free networks, in which a few network nodes act as "very connected" hubs.

Further Reading

• By network scientists:

Linked: The New Science of Networks, Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Perseus Publishing, 2002. Hardcover Textbook. ISBN 0738206679.

Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks, Mark Buchanan, W. W. Norton, 2002, hardcover, 256 pages, ISBN 0393041530

Six Degrees: The Science of a Connected Age, Duncan J. Watts, W. W. Norton, February, 2003, Hardcover: 448 pages. ISBN 0393041425

• Consumer studies using network theory:

Tipping Point: How Little things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell, Little, Brown, 2002, trade paperback, 304 pages, ISBN 0316346624

Influentials: One American in Ten Tells the Other Nine How to Vote, Where to Eat, and What to Buy, Edward B. Keller, Jonathan L. Berry, Douglas B. Reeves, Free Press, 2003, paperback, ISBN 0743227301

Branded: The Buying and Selling of Teenagers, Alissa Quart, Perseus, 2002, hardcover, 256 pages, ISBN 0738206644

(bibliography derived from New York Times article, January 25, 2003 "Connect, They Say, Only Connect")

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