Stephen Downes

This is an introduction to networks that begins "Networks are collections of nodes and links' and continues just fine until it €list the principles of "is a healthy network". Here the authors demonstrate conclusively (to my mind) that they very much misunderstand what a network is. Here's the introduction to that section: "A healthy network is one that is able to achieve its collective purpose/core functions, while also addressing the interests of its members..." No. Networks don't have core purposes. Any agency exhibited by a network is an emergent property, a result of individual actions and interactions. The authors are merging the properties of a system, which is designed to serve a specific purpose, and a network, which grows and evolves through the individual actions of its members. They are not the same.