Game theory is extremely useful for analyzing all kinds of cooperative and non-cooperative behavior ... it is also useful for explaining the growth of groups into institutions and political parties that control government and history.
Social networks and social commerce are still at the MOST early form of organizational evolution ... basically there are few forms that have advanced past comparison-based groups, forums and discussions ... competition is the next step; auction is a competitive game that is well-established but there are plenty of ways to improve auction ... cooperation is the next step; early forms of cooperative networks are fundraising organizations like Kiva or Kickstarter -- these are still relatively expensive networks to maintain and build ... moving beyond cooperation takes us to collaboration; it's a difficult to achieve much in the way of collaborative networks -- open source collaboration is probably the most advanced with Apache Software Foundation and GitHub ... adhoc groups coalescing into rudimentary institutions ... much like traders meeting on a street corner in Manhattan and then Wall Street and then ... become the central financial trading hub in the world.
