Comments on: Social Clusters on Facebook. What do you want – More Clusters or Friends?

By: The Unigon

The Unigon — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:58:06 +0000

@Rupul: True! That’s another great app on facebook.

By: Rupul

Rupul — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 09:17:29 +0000

I have found social graphs to be extremely valuable tools to analyze which “worlds” you move between. I highly recommend this tool: http://apps.facebook.com/_nexus_/

By: What do your friends say about you? « Starting from Scraps

What do your friends say about you? « Starting from Scraps — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:31:23 +0000

[...] Check out Facebook Social Graphs. What this nifty little tool does is map your connections in a visual graph, using a specific formula. (Basically, a spring-electrical model. Each connection is a charged particle, repelling everyone away from himself, and is connected with a spring, pulling together. This forces the connections to form clusters, with large interconnected groups bunched up together, and independent loners pushed far outwards. The individual clusters will also repel each other, moving into clear ‘continents’. See here for more details on the model) This creates an interesting theory – that the pattern of cluster formation can be used to predict user personality and possibly career success. (via Pluggd.in) [...]

By: Unigon

Unigon — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 11:14:18 +0000

@Ashish: I doubt anyone’s network would be as close-knit that everyone knows everyone else within the group. For such people, the graph would look like one big ball of wool. Also, I doubt if anyone’s network would have people where each are alien to one another. In this case, the graph would be like specks of dust disjointed from each other.

For all others, the graph mostly would be clustered.

True! The connection patterns could vary from individual to individual; and yet, it highlights the commonality between friends.

I am quite unsure though how this could lead to a better business. What do you have in mind?

By: Ashish

Ashish — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:10:01 +0000

Very interesting insight… but what about people who are in a niche industry? (eg. me)
Most friends are from the industry, and because there’s a lot of moving between organizations, a few friends now in different places can pull different clusters together. And everyone pretty much knows everyone else. College is meshed in, since everyone would up in the same or similar jobs. and since everyone has similar work hours, leisure activity tends to be similar – and shared – so even leisure-activity groups mesh in more than they should. Family is isolated outposts around the outskirts of the cloud.
But doesn’t this structure make for a good success story as well? Close connections, easy references, relevant business leads…
What do you think?