Stigmergy – the phenomenon of indirect communication mediated by modifications of the environment – was first conceptualized by zoologist Pierre-Paul Grasse in his ground-breaking work on termite colonies (Grasse 1959). It wasn’t until 1999 that Grasse’s work was brought to a wider audience by Eric Bonabeau et al (1999) in a special issue of Artificial Life. Since then interest in stigmergic systems has blossomed with researchers recognizing the application of Grasse’s insights to stock markets, economies, traffic patterns, supply logistics, computer networks, resource allocation, urban sprawl, and cultural memes. New forms of stigmergy have been exponentially expanded through the affordances of digital technology: Google’s recommendation algorithm, Amazon’s filtering algorithm, wiki, open source software, weblogs, and a whole range of “social media” are now deemed as essentially stigmergic.

Though the concept of stigmergy has typically been associated with ant- or swarm-like “agents” with minimal cognitive ability or with creatures of a somewhat higher cognitive capacity such as fish (schooling patterns) or birds (flocking patterns) or sheep (herding behavior), stigmergy offers a powerful tool to be deployed in the human domain. The editors of this special issue are thus looking for contributions that have human-human (social, organizational, and socio-technical) stigmergy as the main focus.

Proposals are invited from social scientists, social epistemologists, cognitive scientists, economists, group decision theorists, collective intentionality theorists, computational sociologists, network theorists, multi-agent modelers, and indeed researchers from any discipline that has social complexity and coordination as a core topic.

Papers that are theoretical, experimental, or computational in orientation are welcome. Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to lesliemarsh [at] gmail [dot] com with “Stigmergy/Cognitive Systems Research” in the subject line. The deadline for proposals is Nov 1, 2010.

All papers will be subject to double blind review by a least two referees and accepted papers will be published in a special issue of Cognitive Systems Research

Click here to view the embedded video.

The original video can be found here on the Radiolab blog.

Start date: Mid-October 2010 or sooner

A postdoctoral position is available in the Collective Animal Behavior Laboratory at Princeton University to study collective information processing using schooling fish as a model system. This is part of a multidisciplinary investigation of decision-making by animal groups. Specifically we aim to explore the interplay between individual heterogeneity, spatial organization, and collective decision-making dynamics.

While a comprehension of modeling techniques may be useful this is first and foremost an experimental position and as such you must have experience of working with animals (ideally, but not essentially, with fish). The CouzinLab is a highly inter-disciplinary environment with an integrated research program involving automated tracking, computational modeling and controlled experimentation. See http://www.princeton.edu/~icouzin for further details.

You will be a team-player to capitalize on these technologies and collaborative possibilities with a passion for biology and the capability to provide leadership in our experimental research program.

To apply, please send a CV and a statement of research interests to Prof. Iain D. Couzin at icouzin@princeton.edu with "Schooling" in the subject line.

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and particularly welcomes nominations of women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

- Collective Behavior and Information Transfer in Human Crowds -

Starting Date: Ideally as soon as possible

A two year postdoctoral position is available in collective behavior of human crowds in the CouzinLab at Princeton University. This is part of an ongoing project for the UK Home Office in collaboration with Oxford Risk, a University of Oxford spinout company, and will involve analysis of kinematic data sets from pedestrian crowds as well as the development and validation of individual-based models of the motion and behavior of people in urban environments. Strong programming skills are essential and comprehension of computer vision techniques would be beneficial (although expert knowledge in this area is not required).

You will be integrated within a highly multi-disciplinary research environment and should be enthusiastic, motivated with good interpersonal skills. The position will be based in Princeton but you must be able to travel to the UK periodically to undertake experiments and for meetings with the Oxford Risk team.

Please see the links below for further information about the CouzinLab and Oxford Risk:

• http://www.princeton.edu/~icouzin
• http://www.oxfordrisk.com/

To apply, please send a CV and a statement of research interests to Prof. Iain D. Couzin at icouzin@princeton.edu with "Crowds" in the subject line.

Princeton University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and particularly welcomes nominations of women and members of underrepresented minority groups.

Hereafter is the summary of this book:

One of the greatest discoveries of recent times is that the complex patterns we find in life are often produced when all of the individuals in a group follow the same simple rule. This process of “self-organization” reveals itself in the inanimate worlds of crystals and seashells, but as Len Fisher shows, it is also evident in living organisms, from fish to ants to human beings. The coordinated movements of fish in shoals, for example, arise from the simple rule: “Follow the fish in front.” Traffic flow arises from simple rules: “Keep your distance” and “Keep to the right.”

Now, in his new book, Fisher shows how we can manage our complex social lives in an ever more chaotic world. His investigation encompasses topics ranging from “swarm intelligence” to the science of parties and the best ways to start a fad. Finally, Fisher sheds light on the beauty and utility of complexity theory. An entertaining journey into the science of everyday life, The Perfect Swarm will delight anyone who wants to understand the complex situations in which we so often find ourselves.

Review in nature can be found here: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v464/n7285/full/464035a.html.

Review in Scientific American Mind can be found here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mind-reviews-the-perfect-swarm.

Position: Computer Scientist in Spatial Analysis and Data Integration
Location: IRD Reunion Island, France
Duration: 17 months from June 2010 to December 2011
Deadline: 31st of May 2010
Salary Range: ~ 3000€ by month

IRD (Institute for Reasearch and Development) is seeking for a young scientific researcher (PhD) with strong quantitative analytical skills and good knowledge in spatial analyses including experience in data modelling (developed mathematical approaches by stochastic differential equations or individual-based models) and programming (R, Splus, C++ or Matlab). You should possess good interactive web development skills to manage databases using JavaScript (AJAX) and PHP/Python in an Apache/Linux environment. Knowledge in marine biology and telemetry are suitable. You will work on electronic tagging data coming from experiments dedicated to the understanding of gregarious fish behaviours under FADs (Fish Aggregating Device). Spatial data with high resolution acquired by different telemetry methods are already available. You will contribute to purchase and consolidate the analyses by confront field data to model outputs. You should have to participate to tagging experiment in the open-field. You need good verbal and written presentation and communication skills in English, good working knowledge of Word and Excel and databases and proven ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team.

For additional information and proposal, please contact:
Dr M. Soria, Research engineer
Tel: 00 262 (0) 262 29 93 42
Email: marc.soria@ird.fr

In the heart of Africa's savannah lies a city that is a model of sustainable development. Its buttressed towers are built entirely from natural, biodegradable materials. Its inhabitants live and work in quarters that are air-conditioned and humidity-regulated, without consuming a single watt of electricity. Water comes from wells that dip deep into the earth, and food is cultivated self-sufficiently in gardens within its walls. This metropolis is not just eco-friendly: with its curved walls and graceful arches, it is rather beautiful too.

This is no human city, of course. It is a termite mound.

To read the rest of this article, click here: For sustainable architecture, think bug – life – 22 February 2010 – New Scientist.

The first day of the meeting is a postgraduate workshop with short talks by invited speakers, focusing on topics of great interest for researchers in the early stages of their career. The second and third days are the Easter meeting. There will be post graduate talks, poster presentations, social events, and plenary lectures by Prof. Jane Hurst and Prof. Jens Krause as well as the presentation by Dr Andy Gardner, the 2010 winner of the ASAB Outstanding Young Investigator Award.

All information can be found at the following address: http://psychology.exeter.ac.uk/asabeaster2010/ASAB%20Easter%20Meeting%202010.html. 

Important dates for this event are:

• Deadline for abstract submission: February 28, 2010
• Registration closes: March 10, 2010

A short post to welcome a new blog about collective behavior: "Collective Behavior: From Cells to Animals to Us". This brand new website is run by three young leaders in the field of collective behavior: David Sumpter, Audrey Dussutour and Iain Couzin. This blog aims at sharing news, ideas and information about research on behavior of groups, and seems to be opened to external contributions. I wish all the best to this initiative.

In the same spirit, I launched some times ago an online bibliography database about collective behaviors (called Swarm References), and I'd like to call for some help in order to fill this database as fast as possible and to keep it up to date. If you're interested, please do not hesitate to contact me.