Human dynamics

Human Dynamics as a branch of statistical physics: Its main goal is to understand human behavior using methods originally developed in statistical physics. Research in this area started to gain momentum in 2005 after the publication of A.-L. Barabási's seminal paper The origin of bursts and heavy tails in human dynamics.^[1] that introduced a queuing model that was alleged to be capable of explaining the long tailed distribution of inter event times that naturally occur in human activity.

This paper spurred a burst of activity in this new area leading to not only further theoretical development of the Barabasi model,^[2][3][4][5] its experimental verification in several different activities ^[5][6] and the beginning of interest in using proxy tools, such as web server logs.,^[7][8][9] cell phone records^[10][11] and even the rate at which registration to a major international conference occurs^[12] and the distance and rate people around the globe commute from home to work.^[13]

In recent years there has been a growing appetite for access to new data sources^[14] that might prove useful in quantifying and understanding human behavior both at the individual and collective scales.^[15]

The term Human Dynamics or Human Dynamics as Personality Dynamics has also been used to describe a framework for understanding people and is applied in a technique aimed at education and team building. It is pioneered by Sandra Seagal and David Horne.^[16] It is a study of the ways in which we process information related to the balance of Physical, Emotional, and Mental components of our experiences. ^[17] It has been subject to some skepticism, having been described in a Dutch newspaper as a personality course with esoteric (occult) roots.^[18][19]

Sense Networks

• Report of the Defense Science Board Task Force on Understanding Human Dynamics ^{[dead link]}
• Human Dynamics at Notre Dame