Six Degrees of Bill Gates.
Microsoft Proves Six Degrees of Separation Theory, Still Can't Get Customers to Separate Themselves from Their Wallet to Buy Vista.
The research paper from June of 2007, "Worldwide Buzz: Planetary-Scale Views on an Instant-Messaging Network," by Microsoft Researcher Eric Horvitz of and Jure Leskovec of Carnegie Mellon University, used Microsoft Instant Messenger to analyze 30 billion conversations back in 2006. When the numbers were all crunched, the data shows that you and I are just six point six degrees away from Lindsay Lohan, Brad and Angelina, Amy Winehouse or Osama BinLaden. Assuming that Osama uses Microsoft Instant Messenger, of course. He seems like he'd be more of an AIM guy to me though.
Researchers at Microsoft decided to use an instant messaging client to collect their data because of its wide use in both personal and business communication. Microsoft Internet Messenger was probably deployed because, well because, they own it! Some of the other data the researchers collected isn't too surprising and and could easily have been a job for Captain Obvious. Microsoft Researcher Eric Horvitz notes, "We find that people tend to communicate more with each other when they have similar age, language, and location, and that cross-gender conversations are both more frequent and of longer duration than conversations with the same gender."
So outside of the fact that this gives us a new and factually concrete reason to utter the phrase, "Wow, six degrees of separation," whenever we find out that the busboy at Denny's knows our Cousin Edna in Elmira, are there any real-world applications for the data? The Washington Post reported that researchers said that the findings could be of use for "political organizations, charity efforts, natural disaster relief and missing-person searches."
The six degrees of separation theory is based on the idea that everyone is just one a step away from everyone they know, two steps out from people known by the people they know, add infinitum ad nauseam. So basically anyone on earth can be connected to anybody else on the globe through a series of acquaintances that will not exceed more than five intermediaries.
The research brief is available online with pretty color charts and funny looking equations that are guaranteed to make your head spin.
Microsoft Research (pdf) "Microsoft Research Technical Report MSR-TR-2006-186 June 2007"
Microsoft Research "Planetary-Scale Views on a Large Instant-Messaging Network"
Microsoft Research (pdf) "leskovec_horvitz_www2008.pdf"
Washington Post "Instant-Messagers Really Are About Six Degrees from Kevin Bacon"
Published by John Ford
John is a Florida native with a background in Broadcasting, Print & New Media. An expert in Broadcast Talent & Creative Services with stints at ABC & as VP/New Media at Sabo Media. A respected writer for Par... View profile
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2 Comments
Post a CommentWith respect to the comment:
It's not unusual for businesses to do "research" that brings attention to their products, that's for certain. The "6 degrees of separation" is interesting to consider, but beyond that..., and probably for most "average" people, it's just interesting conversational fodder.
I agree, but nonetheless, I think the web is so powerful that it is worth a try to use this concept to connect with even difficult to reach people such as Bill Gates, hence the reason I am giving it a try: http://bill-gates-venture-capital-venture-capitalist.com
I do think the odds are remote in terms of getting a reply, unless someone who alerts Mr. Gates reads the entire posting carefully, but again, the web is so inherently powerful that even Bill himself may be read it with or w/o the power of six degrees kicking in. I think the best things in the world were as a result of people taking chances, so I vote yes, on the whole "6 degrees of separation" concept. Interesting article.
It's not unusual for businesses to do "research" that brings attention to their products, that's for certain. The "six degrees of separation" is interesting to consider, but beyond that for me, and probably for most "average" people, it's just interesting conversational fodder.
Thanks for a great read.