The Network Structure of the Obama Administration, Illuminated

Last week I accompanied Dr. Linda Garcia and her son, Steve — a business consultant who specializes in social network analysis — to present our research at the Harvard Political Networks Conference.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

Why Sony wins the video game wars

Yes. I think Sony wins thevideo game wars. You will either find this statement (a) entirely credulous since I already sunk $600 into a 60GB Playstation 3 (personal bias revealed) or (b) entirely incredulous, because the Wii is clearly the fastest-selling system, and the XBox 360 has the most marketshare of next-generation games.

Let me start by saying that there is nothing wrong with either of the other two systems. But here are my reasons for this statement.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

Taking your thesis outside the academy

Ashley recently posted about her self-publication of her thesis using Lulu’s print-on-demand service, and I wanted to follow up with my own thoughts on this process. While Ashley’s post emphasized the nostalgic and sentimental motives for self-publishing, I approached my own project from a much different perspectice: career development, personal branding and, of course, copyright.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

How Savvy Are Viewers in Our Staged World?

Recalling the time when Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” movie came out, the question most often raised was how much of the film was documentary and how much was carefully orchestrated entertainment. At the MTV Movie Awards a couple weeks ago, Cohen organized an on-stage tussle with Eminem that the rapper later admitted was a planned shenanigan for laughs and shock value.

Category: The Gnovis Blog

My Book for My Mom (Thanks to Lulu)

I wanted to look at my Mom and say, “hey look, I wrote a book.”  Sadly, Georgetown no longer accepts paper thesis submissions which makes all kinds of sense for the reasons you don’t need me to go into.  If you’ve paid attention at all to debates about the future of media you know paper is out and electronic is in (cheaper, better for the forests, etc etc etc).

Category: The Gnovis Blog

'Chuck' and the Future of Television

It’s no secret that I’m a TV geek. (Evidence: here, here, here, here and here.) But even those who aren’t narrative nerds who love to watch serials in expectation of the next big plot twist have plenty of reason to love Chuck.

For those who don’t know Chuck, Chuck is the only quirky hour-long comedy about a Stanford flunky who works at a Geek Squad-style entity while solving top secret CIA investigations. Chuck is also unabashedly for the children of the ’80s. Guest stars include Scott Bakula of Quantum Leap and Chevy Chase of the SNL and the Vacation franchise.

Category: The Gnovis Blog