Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 90 ) - Small World
The Small World Concept is derived from the notion that in this vast and complicated world there are bound to be some common threads that link people and things together through some underlying connections which may not be obvious at first glance. These subtle links will reveal themselves if we observe the system from the right perspectives and the Science of Networks will provide us with the tools to carry out such observations and analysis.
In 1967, a US social psychologist called Stanley Milgram conducted a strange experiment. He sent a number of letters to various unrelated persons in the Mid- West . He explained in his letters that each letter was, in fact, intended for one of his sharebroker friends who lived in the Boston area whose address he had mislaid. The recipients of his letters were asked to try their best to assist him in forwarding the letter to this friend of his with just the details of his friend's name and profession. As if by divine intervention, most of his letters reached the hands of his sharebroker friend in Boston in something like six steps. This was the birth of the now famous phrase - “ Six Degrees of Separation “ after which a movie was made. As unlikely as it may sound, it is claimed that all people on earth are connected to every other person only by a personal link of no more than six people. This is the origin of the Small World Concept. We are actually more closely connected than we would at first realise.
To understand this idea better, we must first know some basic facts about networks in general. There are three main kinds of networks for expressing the relationships between different variables. The first kind is a random network, the second one is the fragmented network and the third is the small world network. The first kind, as lts name implies, does not have any connections or feed-back loops among its constituent parts while the second kind contains connections among each local module but not as a whole. The third kind is the most interesting and useful one. Such a configuration means that there are shortcuts in the access routes between different parts of the small world network that can be exploited to increase the effeciency in communications among these divided regions of the network. These are the subtle connections, so to speak.
It is easy to visualise how the small world effect can come about in just a few examples. Let us look at some of these in turn. Suppose you are an accountant and your circle of friends are mostly accountants. Then, suppose your wife is a doctor and most of her circle of friends are in the medical profession. Normally, accountants and doctors have no frequent and necessary contact with one another but because of the relationship between you and your wife these two seemingly separate groups of people are subtly linked and may very well develop social and professional contact through you and your wife. Due to the multiple capacities each person must necessarily assume, each person's social and professional networks of friends may cover vast and complicated groups of seemingly unconnected people. If you add the blood relationships and in-law relationships of each person to his or her lists of possible groups of people they will interact, you can easily build up an extensive and colourful social network for each person. You may not realize the potential connections but they are there and can be very useful for you when you need them. For social networks, the significance of understanding such connections will be advantageous in terms of potentials in friendships, business development, personal assistance, job opportunities and exchange of important information when you need it. However, if the small world effect is applied to other phenomena such as epidemics, its proper understanding can save precious lives.
The most vital and rewarding characteristic of the small world effect that scientists have discovered is that subtle or informal connections may be even more important and decisive in the functioning of any particular network in which the effect is present. The following example will illustrate this point. The formal communication network in a big corporation is, of course, the local area network of computers but before any policy is finalized and approved by the management it has to be discussed. Therefore, any hints of a forthcoming administrative policy will not come from the formal information system. In fact, management scientists have conclusively discovered that the most sensitive information system for capturing intelligence on upcoming company policy decisions exists in the informal circle of the secretaries of the various department heads during their coffee break gossips. This finding is the absolute truth and not a joke ! The chatting and gossiping of a group of secretaries is actually the medium for the propagation of the small world effect in any big corporation. The subtle link in the present example shows how the various parts of a big corporation can be connected by an informal sub-system and that remarkable shortcuts can be found in the corporate network's information system outside the mainframe computer. This, once again, is the same lesson taught us by the Science of Networks as in other theories to be meticulous in our observations and not simply following our instinct of paying attention only to the conspicuous facts. In many cases, it is the inconspicuous details that make the vital difference.
The Small World Concept is derived from the notion that in this vast and complicated world there are bound to be some common threads that link people and things together through some underlying connections which may not be obvious at first glance. These subtle links will reveal themselves if we observe the system from the right perspectives and the Science of Networks will provide us with the tools to carry out such observations and analysis.
In 1967, a US social psychologist called Stanley Milgram conducted a strange experiment. He sent a number of letters to various unrelated persons in the Mid- West . He explained in his letters that each letter was, in fact, intended for one of his sharebroker friends who lived in the Boston area whose address he had mislaid. The recipients of his letters were asked to try their best to assist him in forwarding the letter to this friend of his with just the details of his friend's name and profession. As if by divine intervention, most of his letters reached the hands of his sharebroker friend in Boston in something like six steps. This was the birth of the now famous phrase - “ Six Degrees of Separation “ after which a movie was made. As unlikely as it may sound, it is claimed that all people on earth are connected to every other person only by a personal link of no more than six people. This is the origin of the Small World Concept. We are actually more closely connected than we would at first realise.
To understand this idea better, we must first know some basic facts about networks in general. There are three main kinds of networks for expressing the relationships between different variables. The first kind is a random network, the second one is the fragmented network and the third is the small world network. The first kind, as lts name implies, does not have any connections or feed-back loops among its constituent parts while the second kind contains connections among each local module but not as a whole. The third kind is the most interesting and useful one. Such a configuration means that there are shortcuts in the access routes between different parts of the small world network that can be exploited to increase the effeciency in communications among these divided regions of the network. These are the subtle connections, so to speak.
It is easy to visualise how the small world effect can come about in just a few examples. Let us look at some of these in turn. Suppose you are an accountant and your circle of friends are mostly accountants. Then, suppose your wife is a doctor and most of her circle of friends are in the medical profession. Normally, accountants and doctors have no frequent and necessary contact with one another but because of the relationship between you and your wife these two seemingly separate groups of people are subtly linked and may very well develop social and professional contact through you and your wife. Due to the multiple capacities each person must necessarily assume, each person's social and professional networks of friends may cover vast and complicated groups of seemingly unconnected people. If you add the blood relationships and in-law relationships of each person to his or her lists of possible groups of people they will interact, you can easily build up an extensive and colourful social network for each person. You may not realize the potential connections but they are there and can be very useful for you when you need them. For social networks, the significance of understanding such connections will be advantageous in terms of potentials in friendships, business development, personal assistance, job opportunities and exchange of important information when you need it. However, if the small world effect is applied to other phenomena such as epidemics, its proper understanding can save precious lives.
The most vital and rewarding characteristic of the small world effect that scientists have discovered is that subtle or informal connections may be even more important and decisive in the functioning of any particular network in which the effect is present. The following example will illustrate this point. The formal communication network in a big corporation is, of course, the local area network of computers but before any policy is finalized and approved by the management it has to be discussed. Therefore, any hints of a forthcoming administrative policy will not come from the formal information system. In fact, management scientists have conclusively discovered that the most sensitive information system for capturing intelligence on upcoming company policy decisions exists in the informal circle of the secretaries of the various department heads during their coffee break gossips. This finding is the absolute truth and not a joke ! The chatting and gossiping of a group of secretaries is actually the medium for the propagation of the small world effect in any big corporation. The subtle link in the present example shows how the various parts of a big corporation can be connected by an informal sub-system and that remarkable shortcuts can be found in the corporate network's information system outside the mainframe computer. This, once again, is the same lesson taught us by the Science of Networks as in other theories to be meticulous in our observations and not simply following our instinct of paying attention only to the conspicuous facts. In many cases, it is the inconspicuous details that make the vital difference.
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