New preprint! 🚨How do groups process information? What does it mean for part of a network to "explore" and part to "exploit"? How do we move beyond phenomenological correlation in our analyses of networks to a causal theory of collective intelligence?

Here, we try to answer these questions:

Packs with mostly men revolve around AI, quantum computing, optimization, and sports science (I chuckled hard at that one - what's more “male-coded” than sports).

Now, let’s zoom into the community where the overall proportion of women > 0.5: developmental/affective psychology - which, I believe, has historically higher proportion of women. It is mostly balanced but with quantitative/computational terms—“metrics,” “games,” “tech”—the proportion shifts again.

Unsurprisingly, the AI community is the worst offender. Women in NLP and Women in AI shine through the sea of men, proving that dedicated spaces in male-dominated fields aren’t just nice—they’re necessary.

Since it’s Women’s History Month and given the current discourse on DEI, I looked at gender diversity in these academic communities.
Overall, women are less represented in academic packs, but not too bad I suppose. In the link, you can color the packs now based on the proportion of men/women

🌎 It’s especially heartening to see the climate change community grow, connecting topics like Cinema History, Audience Research, SciComm to more traditional topics of Climate Science. Also, fun seeind the Vegan Academics in the community :D ! 🌱💚 #ClimateScience

📢 The academic network has grown!! 🧪👩‍🔬
🔗 ketikagarg.github.io/blueSkyAcade...
We now have large communities in AI, climate change, psychology, neuroscience, history, and philosophy, and more! A shallow dive into some new communities and some interesting (and disheartening) patterns: 🧵👇

But check out how AI communities connect various disciplines - neuroscience, quantum physics, computational chemistry and ecology!

I could go on.. here is my favorite, equivalent to locating one's country on a map - the community of researchers interested in South Asia

Some not so obvious and fun - Packs on complexity science connect to packs on psychedelics through Emergence! :D

It's fascinating to see how communities connect, some obvious but satisfying - packs on Misinformation connect to packs abt Ukraine & open journalism. Or how biomedical eng. connects packs on musko-skeletal research and material research!

1st post on bsky - about bsky! I was fascinated with academic starter packs and made an interactive network to see academic communities and how they connect - a map of knowledge! link to an interactive & searchable network: ketikagarg.github.io/blueSkyAcade...