Instructor: Clay Shirky
Midterm Proposal: Part One  

The Use of ITP Lockers In Replicating A Network: Part One

You must explain in writing what your network was designed to do?
My network was designed to move four color-coded packages (yellow, white, blue and red) within a network in which the nodes were individual lockers in the ITP floor and the transporters were the students. These four packages were each color coded with the following colors, red, white, blue and yellow. Each package contained the following items, five mini kit kat bars, a scotch tape dispenser, and detailed instructions on how the package could be moved within the network. Each color-coded package was initially left in its own matching color coded section on a randomly assigned node. I had no prior knowledge of the node activity before selecting the initial originating node and attempted to place them at varying positions so that they can be as randomly assigned as possible.

Overall the network was designed to facilitate the movement of each color-coded package from one colored section to another. The final destination point would be my locker after the packages accumulated both the names of the students who handled them as well as the color-coded section they were in. The color-coded sections served as a controlling agent and limited the number of node jumps of the packages between the node points, thus increasing the speed of the movement and probability of receiving the packages at the final destination point.

What predictions did you made about its operation?
I made several predictions about the overall operation of my network. The first and foremost being that the efficiency and success of this network depended on the following factors, the frequency of node use, instruction review and compliance as well as active participation by the ITP student. This prediction was proven correct by the end results of the network.

My second predictions revolved around the length of time the network would take to accomplish its main objective, which was sending all the packages through the various nodes to the final destination point. I predicated that this would be nearly impossible to calculate because this is dependent upon the following two factors, the frequency of node use as well as the active participation by the students to act as transporters and this is something I cannot calculate.

I was also correct on this prediction because the active or inactive use of the nodes, which I could not calculate, created a variable efficiency effect, which overall influenced the performance of my entire network.

My entire research paper can be viewed on the PDF file below