Small World Phenomenon / Six Degrees

Wikipedia: "The small world phenomenon (also known as the small world effect) is the hypothesis that everyone in the world can be reached through a short chain of social acquaintances. The concept gave rise to the famous phrase six degrees of separation after a 1967 small world experiment by social psychologist Stanley Milgram which suggested that two random US citizens were connected by an average of a chain of six acquaintances."

Update:

Check out David Bradley's article on Six Degrees of Separation from ScienceBase and We’re Far Removed From Proof of ‘Six Degrees’ Theory from the Wall Street Journal.

Personal observation from Sean:

I have done work in this area [social network analysis] and have found that many of the "hubs" in organizations are so not because of titles, status or even friendliness but the result of physical location. For example, in a 300 person call center, the people with the most inbound links / edges tend to be those in the higher traffic areas.

Interestingly enough, most of the connections tend to cluster geographically where the average person relies on those in their immediate vicinity for the majority of information sharing: what we call "six feet of separation." Getting up to ask a question of someone outside of that immediate area presupposes the usually "good enough" answers available from their proximity peers may not be sufficient.

Weak Ties

Wikipedia: "Weak tie is a term suggested by Mark Granovetter in 'The strength of weak ties' (American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 78, No. 6., May 1973) as the ties in a social network that are not strong. Strong ties are those such as kin relations and close personal friends, while weak ties are loose acquaintances such as those connections made at a party."

Valids Krebs [via Twitter]: "That is NOT correct definition of weak tie -- college roommate who you rarely talk to is a weak tie -- there is trust in tie!"

Smart Mobs

Wikipedia: "The smart mob is a concept introduced by Howard Rheingold in his book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. According to Rheingold, smart mobs are an indication of the evolving communication technologies that will empower the people...

"A smart mob is a group that, contrary to the usual connotations of a mob, behaves intelligently or efficiently because of its exponentially increasing network links. This network enables people to connect to information and others, allowing a form of social coordination. Parallels are made to, for instance, slime moulds."

Valids Krebs [via Twitter]: "Two metrics necessary to determine 'small world': clustering coeff & avg path length, some use third metric of 'shortcuts'."

Social Capital

Wikipedia: "Social capital is defined by international intangible standards as the value that is created through the application of social networks during non-organizational time. From this stance, social capital when added to human capital summate to define economic capital."

Valids Krebs [via Twitter]: "strongest soc cap developed during project work -- thru work networks, not socializing -- thru tuff times, not good times.