Externalities and stability in social cloud

Externalities in endogenous sharing economy networks

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of link formation between a pair of agents on the resource availability of other agents (that is, externalities) in a social cloud network, a special case of endo...

Externalities in Endogenous Sharing Economy Networks.

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of link formation between a pair of agents on the resource availability of other agents (that is, externalities) in a social cloud network, a special case of endogenous sharing economy networks. Specifically, we study how the closeness between agents and the network size affect externalities. We conjecture, and experimentally support, that for an agent to experience positive externalities, an increase in its closeness is necessary. The condition is not sufficient though. We, then, show that for populated ring networks, one or more agents experience positive externalities due to an increase in the closeness of agents. Further, the initial distance between agents forming a link has a direct bearing on the number of beneficiaries, and the number of beneficiaries is always less than that of non-beneficiaries.

Externalities in Socially-Based Resource Sharing Network.

Abstract: This paper investigates the impact of link formation between a pair of agents on resource availability of other agents in a social cloud network, which is a special case of socially-based resource sharing systems. Specifically, we study the correlation between externalities, network size, and network density. We first conjecture and experimentally support that if an agent experiences positive externalities, then its closeness (harmonic centrality measure) should increase. Next, we show the following for ring networks: in less populated networks no agent experiences positive externalities; in more populated networks a set of agents experience positive externalities, and larger the distance between agents forming a link, more the number of beneficiaries; and the number of beneficiaries is always less than the number of non-beneficiaries. Finally, we show that network density is inversely proportional to positive externalities, and further, it plays a crucial role in determining the kind of externalities.

Resource Availability in the Social Cloud: An Economics Perspective.

Abstract: This paper focuses on social cloud formation, where agents are involved in a closeness-based conditional resource sharing and build their resource sharing network themselves The objectives of this paper are: (1) to investigate the impact of agents' decisions of link addition and deletion on their local and global resource availability, (2) to analyze spillover effects in terms of the impact of link addition between a pair of agents on others' utility, (3) to study the role of agents' closeness in determining what type of spillover effects these agents experience in the network, and (4) to model the choices of agents that suggest with whom they want to add links in the social cloud The findings include the following Firstly, agents' decision of link addition (deletion) increases (decreases) their local resource availability However, these observations do not hold in the case of global resource availability Secondly, in a connected network, agents experience either positive or negative spillover effect and there is no case with no spillover effects Agents observe no spillover effects if and only if the network is disconnected and consists of more than two components (sub-networks) Furthermore, if there is no change in the closeness of an agent (not involved in link addition) due to a newly added link, then the agent experiences negative spillover effect Although an increase in the closeness of agents is necessary in order to experience positive spillover effects, the condition is not sufficient By focusing on parameters such as closeness and shortest distances, we provide conditions under which agents choose to add links so as to maximise their resource availability

Social Network Analysis: Methods and Applications.

Abstract: Social Network Analysis Methods And Social network analysis (SNA) is the process of investigating social structures through the use of networks and graph theory. It characterizes networked structures in terms of nodes (individual actors, people, or things within the network) and the ties, edges, or links (relationships or interactions) that connect them. Examples of social structures commonly visualized through social network ...

The Anatomy of the Grid: Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations

Abstract: "Grid" computing has emerged as an important new field, distinguished from conventional distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and, in some cases, high performance orientation. In this article, the authors define this new field. First, they review the "Grid problem," which is defined as flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources--what is referred to as virtual organizations. In such settings, unique authentication, authorization, resource access, resource discovery, and other challenges are encountered. It is this class of problem that is addressed by Grid technologies. Next, the authors present an extensible and open Grid architecture, in which protocols, services, application programming interfaces, and software development kits are categorized according to their roles in enabling resource sharing. The authors describe requirements that they believe any such mechanisms must satisfy and discuss the importance of defining a compact set of intergrid protocols to enable interoperability among different Grid systems. Finally, the authors discuss how Grid technologies relate to other contemporary technologies, including enterprise integration, application service provider, storage service provider, and peer-to-peer computing. They maintain that Grid concepts and technologies complement and have much to contribute to these other approaches.

The Anatomy of the Grid - Enabling Scalable Virtual Organizations

Abstract: "Grid" computing has emerged as an important new field, distinguished from conventional distributed computing by its focus on large-scale resource sharing, innovative applications, and, in some cases, high-performance orientation. In this article, we define this new field. First, we review the "Grid problem," which we define as flexible, secure, coordinated resource sharing among dynamic collections of individuals, institutions, and resources-what we refer to as virtual organizations. In such settings, we encounter unique authentication, authorization, resource access, resource discovery, and other challenges. It is this class of problem that is addressed by Grid technologies. Next, we present an extensible and open Grid architecture, in which protocols, services, application programming interfaces, and software development kits are categorized according to their roles in enabling resource sharing. We describe requirements that we believe any such mechanisms must satisfy, and we discuss the central role played by the intergrid protocols that enable interoperability among different Grid systems. Finally, we discuss how Grid technologies relate to other contemporary technologies, including enterprise integration, application service provider, storage service provider, and peer-to-peer computing. We maintain that Grid concepts and technologies complement and have much to contribute to these other approaches.

Cassandra: a decentralized structured storage system

Abstract: Cassandra is a distributed storage system for managing very large amounts of structured data spread out across many commodity servers, while providing highly available service with no single point of failure. Cassandra aims to run on top of an infrastructure of hundreds of nodes (possibly spread across different data centers). At this scale, small and large components fail continuously. The way Cassandra manages the persistent state in the face of these failures drives the reliability and scalability of the software systems relying on this service. While in many ways Cassandra resembles a database and shares many design and implementation strategies therewith, Cassandra does not support a full relational data model; instead, it provides clients with a simple data model that supports dynamic control over data layout and format. Cassandra system was designed to run on cheap commodity hardware and handle high write throughput while not sacrificing read efficiency.

A Strategic Model of Social and Economic Networks

Abstract: We study the stability and efficiency of social and economic networks, when self-interested individuals can form or sever links. First, for two stylized models, we characterize the stable and efficient networks. There does not always exist a stable network that is efficient. Next, we show that this tension persists generally: to assure that there exists a stable network that is efficient, one is forced to allocate resources to nodes that are not responsible for any of the production. We characterize one such allocation rule: the equal split rule, and another rule that arises naturally from bargaining of the players.