DIME Workshop
12-14 May 2009, Eindhoven University of Technology, The Netherlands
Call of papers
Deadline for extended abstract: 15th February

Organisers: Arianna Martinelli, Alessandro Nuvolari, Önder Nomaler

New : Program and List of Participants

Description of the workshop:

 “The Structure and Dynamics of Knowledge Networks” is one of the domains of applications, where network analysis has produced very important insights. For innovation studies, network analyses offer interesting opportunities to trace the generation and the diffusion of technical knowledge and ideas over time and through entities at various aggregation levels. So far, the majority of the work in the network representation of empirical knowledge flows has been in the domain of non-directed and non-weighted graphs which are focused more on multi-way flows among aggregate-level entities such as researchers, inventors or journals than individual articles or patents. In comparison to the large amount of research in the above-mentioned context, the focus on directed graphs remains marginal. The directed/non-directed split has large implications. The analysis toolboxes to be used on directed and non-directed graphs are quite different (despite certain overlaps) and the toolbox for the latter is currently quite underdeveloped in comparison to that for the former. The main reason for the differences in the two toolboxes is basically the differences in the research questions that can be answered by networks of the two different architectures. For example, given a directed network of citation flows between individual patents, a measure such as centrality is not relevant. Such a directed network can be more useful for mapping trajectories through which certain technologies have been evolving and developing. In other words, one can consider using directed graphs of patent citations as a tool to tell the main-lines of the story of the history of the key developments in certain technologies. The dynamic content inherent to directed-graph representations of knowledge flows is particularly appealing for researchers active in the field of technological change and innovations, especially those who are oriented in the evolutionary philosophy.
The main themes of the workshops are:

1. Analytical tools for analyzing directed (and weighted) networks;
2. Empirical analysis of the emergence and transformation of knowledge networks in various domains (e.g. patent citation networks, publication networks, inventor networks, firms, network, etc.);
3. Modeling of the emergence and transformation of knowledge networks (both simulations and analytical models).

Workshop organization:

We have invited about 10 scholars to give papers (including Bart Verspagen, Koen Frenken, Loet Leydersdoff and Uwe Cantner). If you are interested in submitting a paper, send an extended abstract to Arianna Martinelli (a.martinelli@tue.nl) 15th Febrary 2009.  About five papers will be selected for presentation from  the submitted abstracts.
The two main criteria for selection are :

1. quality of the paper,
2. relevance to the topic of the workshop.

You will be notified about acceptance within one weeks’ time after the closing date. The deadline for the full paper will be 30th April 2009.
The workshop is organized within the context of the DIME network of excellence.