Internet Users are Close Together

Technocrat

Internet Users are Close Together

zogger

Mon Aug 04 12:43:00 -0700 2008

Science

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Looking at the social connections with an instant messenging texting study that used billions of messages, the researchers were able to at least partially validate the "six degrees of separation" theory.

Examining the minimum chain lengths it would take to connect all the users in the database, they found the average length was 6.6 steps and that 78% of the pairs could be connected in seven links or fewer. ed.z.: and down in the fine print and results area of the study, they found out that unfortunately, five of those connections owe you money or are always wanting to borrow your mower on Saturday....

Internet Users are Close Together

KlaymenDK

Tue Aug 05 00:34:19 -0700 2008
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From the article: The database used by Mr Horvitz and his colleague Jure Leskovec covered all of the Microsoft Messenger instant-messaging network, or roughly half of the world's instant-messaging traffic, in June 2006.

I wonder if they really asked all those users to opt in, or informed them of this research project? None of my friends have mentioned taking part in a study.

There have been many other Six Dregrees studies, for example by the Boston Museum of Science (which, it should be noted, also is not truly opt-in as it wants users to submit their friends' email addresses, sigh) but none of them have yielded a definite busted/confirmed result.

The crux in the six degrees game, by the way, is not how many friends you have, it's how many unique friends you have; that is, people that that are friends only with you and not each other. There's some simple math to back this up, but the short of it is that the magic number, given about 7 billion people in the world, is that everyone would need to have 44 unique friends. Now, there's a sequel to the study.