Do you know your three degrees from your six degrees? Your streaky from your Kevin Bacon? Small worlds from your big world?, Web 2.0 from webbed toes… I

Six Degrees. An influential network theory based on original work by Stanley Milgram. Six degrees of Separation was a small-world experiment which sought to link random passers by in Nebraska with a particular stockbroker in Chicago. The experiment involved the infamous ‘lost letter technique’ - leaving envelopes with a stockbrokers name on and asking the person if they could forward it to someone closer. It was discovered that some envelopes reached their destination after only 6 steps. Indicating that perhaps there are only 6 links between people across America.

It is a seductive theory. If I know 40 people and you know 40 people and they know 40 people etc after 6 stages or degrees, I know, or am notionally in touch, with 6 billion people on the planet. We are all connected. Impressive and thought provoking.

Of course it’s not that simple. There are 19 degrees of separation on the internet, six degrees between Monika Lewinsky and the Pope, whilst Kevin Bacon with all other actors has only 2.8 degrees. “Six Degrees of Separation” is also a play by John Guare and later became a film starring Will Smith. Kevin Bacon himself has created sixdegrees.org as a social network site for charitable giving.

The Three Degrees were a 1960’s female disco pop group originally started by Fayette Pickney, Shirley Porter, and Linda Turner in Philadelphia. 11 women have been in The Three Degrees so far…

Streaky Bacon A cut of meat, traditionally pig, from the underside, side or belly of the animal. Sometimes known as streaky rashers, apparently. Not to be confused with Not-Bacon a vegetarian alternative which must taste good with wheat free bread and ‘I Can’t believe its not butter’

Kevin Bacon A hollywood actor who inspired a network game called ‘the Oracle of Kevin Bacon’ invented by Brett Tjaden and Glen Wasson, computer scientists at the University of Virginia. (oracleofbacon.org ) The basic premise is that two actors or actresses are connected if they have starred in the same film together.

So how many links does it take to get from Dennis Hopper to Kevin Bacon? The large Internet Movie Database has over 500 000 names but is a microcosm of the whole social world. It turns out that the furthest actor is 10 links away and the average is 2.896 Dennis Hopper has a Bacon number of 2. Dennis Hopper was in Speed (1994) with Beau Starr. Beau Starr was in Where the Truth Lies (2005) with….Kevin Bacon.

Small World The small world phenomenon has long been intuited and much experienced personally. A key paper, ‘The Collective Dynamics of ‘Small World’ networks’ was first published in Nature Magazine in 1998 by Duncan Watts & Steve Strogatz. They explored the structure and organisation of social groups, using graph theory and network theory to explain what does indeed make our world at least appear to be small.

The term ‘small world’ is also a phrase often heard on holiday when a random stranger points out that they are in fact a FOAFF (friend of a friends friend).

Big World Earth’s diameter 12,756.3 km Mean circumference: 40,041.47 km Surface area 510,065,600km Land area:148,939,100 km2 Water area:361,126,400 km2 Volume 1.083 207 3x1012 km Mass 5.9736 x1024kg

Tipping Points Complexity, chaos and catastrophe theory all inform ‘tipping points’ – the idea that because of our interconnectedness there is an often unpredictable critical point after which a phase transition occurs. Large forest fires, water to ice, avalanches, best selling books, box office hits, No.1 pop songs, fashions - all conform to the hockey stick effect where at some point an additional small effect has a large difference.

Internet social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Flikr have experienced tipping points whilst millions of sites don’t, or haven’t yet. The dynamics OF networks and dynamics ON networks help to understand tipping points. So does Malcolm Gladwell’s (best selling) book “The Tipping Point”, which itself 'tipped' into the best sellers.

Web 2.0 - (web 2 point oh?) There has been a seismic shift in how the web is used. Previously it connected people to information. Now it connects people to…people.

Webbed Toe Yikes. More common than you think….