Modeling emergent network organizations

Abstract

Fervent and agile communication on social networking sites and in virtual organizations provides opportunities for potential issues to trigger individuals into individual action as well as the attraction and mobilization of like-minded individuals into an organization that is both physically and virtually emergent. Examples are the rapid pace of Arab Spring and the diffusion rate of the occupy movement. Previous organizational models lack the representational power to model spontaneous exigencies of a network organization that accounts for rapid rates of dissemination in impromptu networks. This model, therefore, is conceived in a life cycle for a prototypical, emergent networked organization and description of operations therein from formation to dissolution. After describing the life cycle, this article offers insights for a model of a successful emergent organization and an implemented example of a spacecraft organization of satellites.