Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness

Networks, Complexity, and Relatedness
Inquiry and learning into social networks, organizational network analysis, and the relationships among people and systems in complex organizations and networks.

Thursday, September 01, 2005

Centrality : The Relationship Capital Journal

Thanks (as ever) to Bruce Hoppe for pointing me to Centrality, a group blog with both social network analysis and social software luminaries posting on a regular basis. The former group is led by Stan Wasserman, and the latter by Stowe Boyd. The site is supported by Visible Path, and contains both industry news (about social networking sites, services, and the like), but also some fine distinctions in social networking language.

The current language topic is "degrees" as in "six degrees of separation." It is possible to trace the actual phrase to the play, Six Degrees of Separation, and to find historical reference to SNA research that came up with that magic number. However, it does not appear possible to alter the common usage of "degrees" as "number of hops" or "number of links" between people. Stan Wasserman points out (in some agony, apparently) that it should be six ties, and not degrees. Paths have lengths but only people (nodes) can have degrees. I stand corrected myself and will henceforth have a nice story to tell in my MasterClasses. The thread is worth following.

posted by Patti | permalink (click to comment)

Comments:

OK, that's a good point,...but, when I'm describing SNA to someone who has never heard of the subject, and I'm getting a lot of blank looks, all I have to do is say "...like Kevin Bacon and six degrees of separation; how people in an organization are connected and communicate with one another" Bingo! they get it. So, you may all be swimming up stream on this.

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