I’ve written more on the research I have been doing in my spare time. (What spare time?)  Anyway here is some more boring stuff about the  Six Degrees Of Separation theory. 

I shouldn’t say boring you probably won’t read any further.  It’s fascinating, I sure use that word a lot about this subject.   Maybe I should say intriguing or captivating, hmmmm fascinating describes it’s affect on me better.

The Six Degrees of Separation theory was proposed way back in 1929 by an Hungarian writer, Frigyes Karinthy in a short story called “Chains”.  Of course the Six Degrees term came much later.

In the 1950’s an MIT guy and an IBM guy tried to prove the theory mathematically.   20 years later they still had not proven it.

Then in 1967 a socialogist named Stanley Milgram came up with a way to test the concept.  He called the test “The Small-World Problem”.

He selected, at random, some people in the midwestern United States.  They were to send a package to a stranger.   The only thing they were to know about their target was: his/her name, occupation and general location in the USA.

The instructions to the senders was to send the package to a person they knew and who they thought would be most likely to know the target personally.   That person would do the same and so on down the line until the package was received by the original target person.

The people participating expected it would take hundreds of people in the chain to get the package to the target.

As it turned out it only took an average of 5 to 7 chain links to get it done.  This is when the phrase “Six Degrees of Separation” was coined.

After that there were plays, movies, and games and even websites on the subject.  One of the 10 best websites of 1996 was “The Oracle of Bacon at Virginia”.

There is a whole Hollywood California story about the actor Kevin Bacon on how everyone in Hollywood is only 5 persons separated from Kevin.

The research continues to this day.  In 2001 a Columbia University professor, Duncan Watts, did a huge email test of the theory.   He collected data on 48,000 senders and 19 targets in 157 countries.  Average number of links?  You guessed it, SIX, 6, VI.

As I said, “the research goes on”, and my contribution is applying the theory to internet marketing. 

I’m still stuck on the 4th degree but my list is building and pretty soon someone is going to download one of my free products, BINGO, 5 and then there will be that first SALE, waaaalaaaaaa  SIX, 6, VI.

I love this stuff count em SIX, 6, VI. .