>From an email from Duncan Watts:
Some of the results from that project have been published in the journal
Science. You can download a copy of the results here,
http://smallworld.columbia.edu/results.htmlNow we have another project that we think you might enjoy. This one tries
to understand how people form their musical tastes. If you participate you
will have a chance to discover and download cool new music. It's legal and
totally free.
Check it out:
http://www.musiclab.columbia.edu/me/enterThanks,
Duncan Watts
Department of Sociology
Columbia University
Excerpt from Science abstract:
An Experimental Study of Search in Global Social Networks
Peter Sheridan Dodds,1 Roby Muhamad,2 Duncan J. Watts1,2*
We report on a global social-search experiment in which more than 60,000
e-mail users attempted to reach one of 18 target persons in 13 countries by
forwarding messages to acquaintances. We find that successful social search
is conducted primarily through intermediate to weak strength ties, does not
require highly connected "hubs" to succeed, and, in contrast to unsuccessful
social search, disproportionately relies on professional relationships. By
accounting for the attrition of message chains, we estimate that social
searches can reach their targets in a median of five to seven steps,
depending on the separation of source and target, although small variations
in chain lengths and participation rates generate large differences in
target reachability. We conclude that although global social networks are,
in principle, searchable, actual success depends sensitively on individual
incentives.
1 Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy, Columbia
University, 420 West 118th Street, New York, NY 10027, USA.
2 Department of Sociology, Columbia University, 1180 Amsterdam Avenue, New
York, NY 10027, USA.
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