The vast majority of online marketing techniques in use today are based on the concept of the Internet as an information superhighway. I insist it is not a highway but a network with an almost infinite set of relationships among hundreds of millions - eventually billions - of people around the Globe. Each individual in the network is not seeking information, but is eager to learn what he or she is interested in.
The Internet makes it easy to learn because it is easy to form relationships with anyone on the Net. To enhance learning capabilities, several scientists have begun studies to determine how relationships are formed.
Much current study is based on a theory expounded in 1967 by Stanley Milgram, a Harvard social psychologist. He stated that any one person can contact any other person in the U.S. through six communications. The first person would contact a person in his social circle; this person will contact someone in his circle; and so on. The sixth communication would be with the desired person. The idea was called Six Degrees of Separation.
For 35 years nobody bothered to try to prove this theory. If you are focused on information, it does not matter if this theory is correct or not. But if you are focused on people learning from other people, a process which depends on relationships, you are eager to test this theory.
The following two studies are designed to test the Six Degrees of Separation theory:
- SMALL WORLD RESEARCH PROJECT - This is being run by Dr. Duncan Watts of Columbia University. The project plans to trace email messages sent by volunteers. You may be one of the volunteers by visiting http://smallworld.sociology.columbia.edu. You will be told of the final destination person and then you will send a message to someone you know. The researchers will check how many messages are needed to reach the destination person
- ELECTRONIC SMALL WORLD PROJECT - This project by Ohio State University (http://smallworld.sociology.ohio-state.edu/html/homepage.html) is similar. They are using social network analysis to try to understand how information flows through society
Once these and other studies define the nature of information flow and how relationships are formed, each of us will be able to learn:
- How to locate people with specific know-how
- How to build learning relationships
- How to build cooperative communities
- How to perfect Helpfulness Marketing techniques
The Net encourages Global connectedness based on links, relationships, and contacts among all sorts of people. Learning is the glue for forming an integrated Small World. Regardless of the results of the studies on Six Degrees of Separation, The Small World will get smaller, and we as individuals will become more connected.
How will you connect?
