Six degrees of separation.com
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The theory that anyone in the world can be personally connected to anyone through just six personal links has inspired six million dinner party conversations and a highly rated Hollywood film. But is it true?
The theory that anyone in the world can be personally connected to anyone through just six personal links has inspired six million dinner party conversations and a highly rated Hollywood film. But is it true?
The original theory was put forward US sociologist Stanley Milgram in the 1960s. But he lacked the tools to properly test his ideas. Now, with the benefit of the Internet, the ideas can be given a much more rigorous examination. And that is what sociologist Duncan Watts has done in his new book, Six degrees: The science of a connected age.
Watts' team, working at Columbia University, has initiated and monitored over 50,000 message chains on the Internet originating in 163 different countries. The preliminary findings: "It looks like his [Milgram's] main finding of six degrees is in the ballpark."
The implications for Internet marketing, and indeed marketing in general, are huge, especially in the way that the Internet, or mobile phone networks, might be used to start crazes for certain products. Watts' even likens its significance to the discovery of DNA. But, he points out, it took 50 years before that discovery began to reap social or commercial benefits.
