Eric Berlow

The nature of collaboration is interdisciplinary and exponential. Ecological networks scientist Eric Berlow works with other TED Fellows to map out the collaborations that occur in their network. Through this, a diversity of ideas from different disciplines, places, races and ethnicities is cultivated and displayed.
TEDArchive presents previously unpublished talks from TED conferences.
Filmed at TED2014 -

This was a collaborative project with the wonderful team at Quid. From TED.com: "What do 24,000 ideas look like? Ecologist Eric Berlow and physicist Sean Gourley apply algorithms to the entire archive of TEDx Talks, taking us on a stimulating visual tour to show how ideas connect globally."

#WETHEDATA is a collaborative effort to help spark a new Personal Data Economy that works for everyday people by focusing innovation on core challenges at the root of this complex problem. Vibrant Data Labs' primary contribution to this project was the network analysis of collective expert input to identify 4 'grand challenge' areas that, if solved together, could have the most far-reaching positive impact.

From TED.com: Ecologist Eric Berlow doesn't feel overwhelmed when faced with complex systems. He knows that more information can lead to a better, simpler solution. Illustrating the tips and tricks for breaking down big issues, he distills an overwhelming infographic on U.S. strategy in Afghanistan to a few elementary points.

This was a collaborative project to with Bethanie Maples and Srini Kadamati to explore the thematic landscape of all SciFi books published in the past century. The interactive visualization mentioned in this Wired story is here: http://app.openmappr.org/play/100YrsOfSciFi

More details:
All Sci Fi novels published since 1900 were scraped from Good Reads, and for each novel, all reader comments, plot descriptions, and user-generated tags were compiled. Keywords and concepts were added… Show more

This was a collaborative project to with Bethanie Maples and Srini Kadamati to explore the thematic landscape of all SciFi books published in the past century. The interactive visualization mentioned in this Wired story is here: http://app.openmappr.org/play/100YrsOfSciFi

More details:
All Sci Fi novels published since 1900 were scraped from Good Reads, and for each novel, all reader comments, plot descriptions, and user-generated tags were compiled. Keywords and concepts were added to each novel by parsing the text described above and mapping them to a curated dictionary of SciFi keywords and concepts. 2,633 novels published since 1990 had at least 50 reviews and contained at least one keyword from the keyword corpus.

After keyword enhancement, a book network was created by linking novels if they shared similar keyword signatures. Network clusters identify Keyword Themes - or groups of similar books that are labeled by the top 5 most commonly shared keywords in the group.

The network was generated using the open source python 'tag2network' package, and visualized here using 'openmappr''. The scripts for analyzing this dataset are available at https://github.com/ericberlow/SciFi



NOTE - This visualization performs best in Chrome and Safari browsers full screen - and is not optimized for the small screens of mobile devices. Show less

Collaboration with 100Kin10.org and Kumu.io to map the complex relationships between root problems for shortages in PK-12 STEM teachers. 104 root causes were identified by thousands of stakeholders. We then surveyed 100's of experts to compile over 35,000 votes on what root causes, if solved, influence which other root causes. Network analysis was used to identify potential structural 'keystone' problems with high leverage. Re-sampling was used to evaluate consequences of errors in the voting… Show more

Collaboration with 100Kin10.org and Kumu.io to map the complex relationships between root problems for shortages in PK-12 STEM teachers. 104 root causes were identified by thousands of stakeholders. We then surveyed 100's of experts to compile over 35,000 votes on what root causes, if solved, influence which other root causes. Network analysis was used to identify potential structural 'keystone' problems with high leverage. Re-sampling was used to evaluate consequences of errors in the voting data. Show less

HackingCreativity, a collaboration with Red Bull High Performance, is the largest study of Creative Styles in history. Ongoing...

Einstein once said, "If I had an hour to save the world, I'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem, and 5 minutes on the solution." Most big problems are made of many smaller problems that all influence one another - solving one may solve (or cause) others. How do we define the winning problems to solve?

This video describes an ecological network approach developed by Vibrant Data Labs in collaboration with Intel Labs and Brainvise for #WETHEDATA (wethedata.org) to gather collective… Show more

Einstein once said, "If I had an hour to save the world, I'd spend 55 minutes defining the problem, and 5 minutes on the solution." Most big problems are made of many smaller problems that all influence one another - solving one may solve (or cause) others. How do we define the winning problems to solve?

This video describes an ecological network approach developed by Vibrant Data Labs in collaboration with Intel Labs and Brainvise for #WETHEDATA (wethedata.org) to gather collective expert input about the network structure of a problem, and boil it down to a few core principles for catalyzing change. The example focuses on the complex problem of sparking a new Personal Data Economy that actually works for people and not against them. This work was presented at the World Economic Forum in Davos 2013 to help set the agenda on personal data. Show less

Peer-reviewed research publications in ecology, ecological networks, and conservation science - including papers in Nature, Science, and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. One paper was awarded ISI's "Top 20 most cited ecology/evolution paper of the decade" (1998-2008). Another was awarded ISI's "Fast moving fronts". Numerous others are on ISI's "Highly Cited" lists. Total Citations >18,000, H-Index = 30, i10-index = 40.

In the new digital-age climate, influencers actually do not want to know your name or home address; they’d much rather know your behaviors and traits. The fact that you don’t know you are in that group is a key part of what makes you so vulnerable.