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Six Degrees of Separation

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Abstract

This chapter briefly explores the origins of the notion of six degrees of separation and how it got established in popular culture. People and their acquaintances (contacts) are separated by connections, or hops (degrees). This chapter will get you thinking about how networks are connected and how they are structured.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Such studies naturally ignore pockets of the global population that are isolated and unconnected by any of the popular communication channels—e.g., the Jarawa and Sentinelese tribes of the Andaman Islands (India).

  2. 2.

    Four Degrees of Separation,” Facebook Study Report, November 2011. http://arxiv.org/abs/1111.4570.

  3. 3.

    Ibid, p. 2 notes.

  4. 4.

    Beware, Tech Abandoners. People Without Facebook Accounts Are ’Suspicious.’Forbes, August 2012.

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© 2015 Phani Raj Tadimety

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Tadimety, P.R. (2015). Six Degrees of Separation. In: OSPF: A Network Routing Protocol. Apress, Berkeley, CA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4842-1410-7_1

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