I haven't tried this but you could implement the "link lottery" approach
used by Netlogo and Agentscript with a participatory simulation:
Assuming 25 participants:
1. Ahead of time, cut 24 pieces of 5-foot long elastic string (eg
http://bit.ly/preferentialAttachmentString) and number the pieces from 1
to 24 with folded pieces of tape as a label
2. Line up participants offstage and distribute the strings to the
participants according to their position in line but skipping the first
person (ie the second person gets string 1, third person string 2, etc...)
3. Send the first two people onstage and ask them to hold string #1
between them
4. Send the remaining people onstage one at a time, in order, and ask
them to:
1. call out a random number between 0 and the number on the string
they are holding
2. Ask the two people holding the string with the called-out number
to play rock-paper-scissors (or other random selection method) and then
have the winner raise their hand
3. Ask the person entering the room to walk over to the winner and
create a link by handing the winner the other end of the string the
entering person just carried in with them.
Note:
- As new links are added, you can ask the people in the growing network
to try to space themselves out as much as possible and try to minimize
string crossings.
- If elastic string isn't available, you can use standard string - it
just might be harder to layout
- You could avoid using string altogether and just assign numbers to
participants. As people enter the room, instead of handing one end of their
string to the winner, they would simply reach out and hold onto the winner
as a numbered directed link. This may be more closer to the dance /
movement you're interested in.
- You can see an example of the same algorithm at work with a circular
layout at http://agentscript.org/models/prefattach.html.
-Stephen
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On Tue, Mar 3, 2015 at 8:54 AM, Dawn Parker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hello dear colleagues,
>
> Do people have examples of crowd participation exercises that form
> power-law group distributions?
>
> The backstory is, I'm doing a public lecture next week on using dance
> and movement to illustrate emergence in complex systems, using the example
> of power laws and specifically fractals.
>
> My English colleague found a great literary quote about people forming
> groups at a party, and we will also be presenting an urban growth model
> based on a modification of preferential attachment.
>
> We would like to do a group exercise, ideally based on the party idea,
> that would get people to form power law groups.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> Dawn
>
> Dawn Cassandra Parker
> School of Planning
> University of Waterloo
> +1-519-888-4567 x38888
> EV3 3223
> [log in to unmask]
> http://www.planning.uwaterloo.ca/faculty/parker/index.html
> http://wici.ca
>
>
