Source: Wikipedia
Six degrees of separation
Do you believe that you are related to everyone in the world at no more than six degrees of separation?
Do you believe that you could set up you address book so that you could talk to anybody anywhere (with a little help from your friends)?
I started using LinkedIn about a year ago when I migrated to the UK. I arrive here with a handful (and I mean 5 or 6 contacts). I started adding contacts, though I must say, not all that energetically.
As a newcomer to the UK, obviously I have been networking more than I would if I had been here a while. This blog is a summary of key contacts I have met using 2.0 facilities, such as LinkedIn, and other services like Yahoo Upcoming and commenting on blogs.
I have more contacts than I have met via 2.0. And I have more professional contacts than I have on LinkedIn (I have been a little slack). My primary or first degree contacts on LinkedIn now stand at 46 - so let’s say a 800% to 900% growth in a year. Not bad when you put it like that!
In LinkedIn terms, my network comprises those 46 and their contacts. Some have few contacts and some have lots and lots of contacts. LinkedIn stops counting at 500. Let’s assume, though, that they are all like me. A rough calculation that 50×50 means that the 50 people, who are connected to me, know 2500 people ,and this 2500 set of people know 125 000 people.
Actually LinkedIn says it connects me to over 1m million people. That’s the people I know, who know someone else, who know someone else. Sort of like my third cousins!
I must remind you that I started this a year ago, I have changed countries and moved across the world, and I have been slack. I also have never lived in the States.
Surprising connections
I was looking for a plains-word account of what Barack Obama intended to do about the US economy when I picked up references to his entry in LinkedIn.
I searched for him and was amazed to see that he is connected to me at the third degree (so is Hillary Clinton). I know someone (actually 17 someone’s) who know someone who knows Barack Obama well enough to connect to him on LinkedIn.
What is your connection to the future President of the United States?
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April 1, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Ned
I worked at a bookstore last year and a fellow co-worker (and friend) had been a part of Obama’s campaign for the Senate (it probably helps that I live in Illinois as well). He also worked for Hillary. So I guess I’m one degree away from the best hope for America.
April 1, 2008 at 1:51 pm
scotchcart
Cool! I am watching news or rather lack of news of my country’s elections.
Sooooo frustrating. I must say that the greatest hope of your hope is that he will reduce the opportunity our frustration has of blaming the west for everything.
Hopefully your hope’s background will inhibit him from “talking down”, which western leaders seem to do quite reliably. It will be fun to watch either way.
April 7, 2008 at 9:10 am
Ned
Lol… that’s a lot of hope. The US was never designed to be an empire. That’s the real problem. We go to other countries and say that we’re doing whatever to help out the locals, but we never bother to ask what the locals want. That’s because all we really want are the resources.
I’ve been watching various on-line videos about the history of the CIA. The US has spent a lot of money and time destroying anything that resembles a people’s movement almost anywhere on the planet. And with corporate globalization, the situation inside the States doesn’t look that different.
I tried to email you btw and it just shot back at me… I just wanted to say thanks.
April 7, 2008 at 10:16 am
scotchcart
It’s tough at the top!!
I am reading that BHO, and many young Americans, intuit that America is at its peak and you need to negotiate your place in the new world order. Not to use a patronizing image of other countries, but much like a man or woman coming to terms that their twenty-something children are grown-ups. We adjust our role and it takes a little thinking through. It is still something to look forward to.
I see it as a very positive sign and I hope the learning curve is agreeable. I think it is also exciting time and I am glad to be living in the 21st century. I feel lucky and I feel gratitude, genuine deep gratitude. It is a great time to be alive!
May 1, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Linda Griffin
What an interesting question! I was surprised to see that Obama and Hillary Clinton are 3rd degrees of separation in my network as well. A piece of trivia for the next cocktail party. Thanks!