Tweet

Bees, Nesting and Markets

Guest post by: Paul Kedrosky

Article Overview: Fascinating piece on bee nesting behavior, with some obvious implications for how we should think about independence and interdependence in functioning markets:

Bees, Nesting and Markets

Fascinating piece on bee nesting behavior, with some obvious implications for how we should think about independence and interdependence in functioning markets:

We have developed an agent-based model of nest-site choice among honeybees. The model not only explicitly represents the behaviour of each individual bee as a simple stochastic process, but it also allows us to simulate the bees' decision-making behaviour under a wide variety of empirically motivated as well as hypothetical assumptions. The model predicts that, consistently with empirical observations by Seeley & Buhrman (2001), the bees manage to reach a consensus on the best nest site for a large range of parameter conditions, under both more and less demanding criteria of consensus. Moreover, the model shows that the remarkable reliability of the bees' decision-making process stems from the particular interplay of independence and interdependence between them. The bees are independent in assessing the quality of different nest sites on their own, but interdependent in giving more attention to nest sites that are more strongly advertised by others.

Without interdependence, the rapid convergence of the bees' dances to a consensus would be undermined; there would not be a ‘snowballing’ of attention on the best nest site. Without independence, a consensus would still emerge, but it would no longer robustly be on the best nest site; instead, many bees would end up dancing for nest sites that accidentally receive some initial support through random fluctuations. It is only when independence and interdependence are combined in the right way that the bees achieve their remarkable collective reliability.

Source:

Independence and interdependence in collective decision making: an agent-based model of nest-site choice by honeybee swarms
-- Christian List1, Christian Elsholtz and Thomas D Seeley

Related Articles
  Simple HTML For Article Directories
  Rejection…Not Once, But Twice!
  Is It Alright to Invest Money in Financial Markets Any Time?
  Winning is an effective marketing strategy
  Manifesting – One Day at a Time
  Home-based Business Opportunity: Clean Burning Candles
  Take Care Of Your Business, X
  Branding In Spite of Yourself
  Horizons of Opportunity
  I See the Light�Ouch!
  Purposeful Leaders Make Meaning
  SMEs - surviving the recession in Africa
  SMEs - opportunities in Africa
  International Marketing - Engaging Consulting Firms
  Who Says we Have to Choose?
  How to develop a European Social Media Strategy
  VII G. Strengthen Education: PROMOTING STOCK MARKET DEVELOPMENT IN AFRICA
  Home-based Business Opportunity: Business Plan For Beeswax Candles
  Home-based Business Opportunity: Beeswax Candles
  Positioning: The core of corporate communications

Article Tags: assumptions, bees, empirical observations, honeybees, interdependence, seeley, stochastic process



Related Forum Posts
Walmart - Hi there, It is amazing to hear that news. I am in the UK. Some five years ago Walmart bought ASDA Superstores. We do most of our shopping there. So I have a little interest in Walmart. Eearlier this year I spend a few weeks in the US. I visited Walmart on several occasions. I was impressed, as they have one section for Massive Bulk Purchases. One needs a registration for that priviledge. Are other Markets doing the same? Is that a growing section? It is quite natural that there are competitors. Kindest Regards Beat "Unlock People's Potentials!"
Re: Ideas For Business - Hello Lucy, you may consider this list for Ideas for Business: (Top 23 list) Rank Company 1 Google 2 Genentech 3 Wegmans Food Markets 4 Container Store 5 Whole Foods Market 6 Network Appliance 7 S.C. Johnson & Son 8 Boston Consulting Grp. 9 Methodist Hospital Sys. 10 W.L. Gore & Associates 11 Cisco Systems 12 David Weekley Homes 13 Nugget Market 14 Qualcomm 15 American Century Invest. 16 Starbucks Coffee 17 Quicken Loans 18 Station Casinos 19 Alston & Bird 20 QuikTrip 21 Griffin Hospital 22 Valero Energy 23 Vision Service Plan
OT: TV Shows Teaching Inappropriate Behavior - I just saw a commercial a few minutes ago for a tv show called Queen Bees. Five or six beautiful young women, all full of themselves, saying stuff like, "I'm going to get what I want and if you get in my way I'll hurt you." Every single woman's comment was in that vein - promising violence to anyone who stood in the way of their ambition... to be some sort of "diva." Then there was a commercial for a show called "Be Diddy's Assistant" which showed some woman attacking and hitting a guy in a chair... Then we get Dragon's Den from England... entrepreneurs come to a group of people and make their pitch, and most of them get insulted and ridiculed and tossed aside (again, based on the commercials I've seen - never watched it and never will) And then there's the shows I've heard discussed here.. The Apprentice, etc., all teaching people that violence and sneaking around and in-your-face arrogance is acceptable behavior. And I find it very frightening! Kids are vicious enough just as they are, without being inculcated with this stuff so they grow up and start implementing it!
The Game Inventor's Guidebook - by Brian Tinsman, 2002 I checked this out of my local library today and its pretty interesting... didn't address what I wanted to know, which was how to actually design an online gaming system (indeed this doesn't cover online games at all), but for board games etc. it's pretty good. Here's the TOC: 1. How they diid it: Trivial Pursuit Magic, the Gathering Dungeons & Dragons Pokemon Trading Card Game Interview with an inventor Interview with a publisher 2. How the industry works 1. What's in it for you 2. How new games happen 3. Anatomy of a publisher 4. Markets for games 3. Games and companies you should know 1. Mass market games you should know 2. Mass market companies you should know 3. Hobby games you should know 4. Hobby companies you should know 5. American specialty games and companies you should know 6. European specialty games and companies you should know 4. Self publishing 1. What am I getting into 2. Before you print 3. After you print 5. Selling a game step by step 1. How to invent a game 2. Game design 3. Game development 4. Targeting publishers 5. Before you submit 6. Eight submission strategies 7. Contacting publishers 8. Protecting your property 9. What to do if they don't say yes 10. What to do if they do say yes! 11. The game industry's dirty little secret 6. Resources and examples Publishers and mnufacturers Distributors Brokers Game conventions and trade shows Industry publications Sample query letter Sample record of disclosure Sample licensing agreement Sample option agreement


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

African Technology Development

Leadership-A Daily Gift

Ten Reasons to take Notes during Sales Meetings

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.