Node Glue

Seattle Mind Camp Organizer, Andru Edwards, posted this article honoring his father.  This tells a beautiful story of a father loving a son unconditionally.

Kyle McFarlin, a Gyronix trainer, posted yesterday about how technology attempts to define us, and urges us to think about what we would do with our time if it all disappeared.

Ironically, I think I’m constantly trying to get the technology to help me do the very things that I would do if there was no technology, only more of it. Sometimes that works, other times it doesn’t.

But Kyle’s thought certainly resonates with me. There are days when it feels like the technology is taking over and I’m being assimilated into the Borg.

Every wonder why you’re so curious to hear the dirt on somebody else? There’s a proverb that says “The words of a gossip are like choice morsels; they go down to a man’s inmost parts.” We love those juicy morsels.

When posting about sticky messages, I couldn’t help but reflect on the human nature behind the success of urban legends. And it occurred to me that the human impulse that makes urban legends viral is similar to the impulse that makes gossip viral.

Hmm…

So here’s the second of the obligatory, “hello, world. here’s what I’m up to” startup blog posts.

Nodes

A node is a vertex in a graph. Or you can think of a node as one of the computers on a computer network. Or, if you’re familiar with the Oracle of Bacon, a node there is an actor.

Let’s go with the Oracle of Bacon metaphor.

The idea is that we look at Hollywood as a giant web, or network, of actors. Each actor is a “node” on this network. One actor is “linked” to another by appearing in the same film together. So you have nodes, the actors, and you have links, representing co-appearance in a film.

Networks of Nodes

For example, Leonard Nimoy has a Bacon Number of 2 because he appeared in Star Trek VI with Christian Slater, and Christian Slater appeared in Murder in the First with Kevin Bacon.

This little network represents a tiny little subsection of the much larger network of Hollywood. In the example, Leonard Nimoy, Christian Slater, and Kevin Bacon are nodes. Star Trek VI and Murder in the First are the links. The former links Nimoy and Slater directly to one another. The latter links Slater directly to Bacon.

It’s starts to get really interesting when you realize that Leonard Nimoy is linked to Kevin Bacon through Christian Slater. Now maybe that doesn’t make such a big difference in Hollywood to be linked indirectly to someone, but it certainly does when you’re looking for a job. Who are your best allies when looking for a new job? Your direct connections, closest friends? Nope. It’s their friends, or friends of their friends. The ones you met once at a party and had a decent chat, but rarely see, except when you’re with that friend. But you’re close enough to that person that it’s not rude to say, “hey I’m looking for a job. If you know of any, let me know.” Sociologist Mark Granovetter calls these weak ties, and he argues that, for some purposes, like getting a job, your weak ties are a more valuable asset to you than your strong ties, like your close friends and family.

Epidemiology is another place where network effects are powerful. I don’t know if you went to the same Junior High health class that I went to, but in mine, the refrain was, “if you have sex with one other person, you’re not just having sex with him/her, but with everyone else he/she has ever had sex with, and every one that all of those people have had sex with.” In other words, you can’t answer the question of “what are my chances of contracting AIDS by having sex with this person?” by focusing on that person alone. You have to consider the odds that AIDS might be present anywhere in the entire web of all the people (nodes) that are “linked” to one another through sexual intercourse.

So networks are important. Networks have nodes and links.

Glue, Not Links

But I’m going with glue instead of links. Why?

Because glue is sticky, messy, has no borders, no boundaries. It oozes. But it also creates structure. It brings things together and makes new things, aggregate things, stuck together things. Things that are greater than the sum of their parts.

We live in a cyborg world. A world that is part human and part internet. But the connections are elusive and fuzzy. Stick and messy. Like glue. The connections between the nodes in this cyborg world are not the crisp lines of your typical graph. They’re all over the place.

Let me give you an example.

I had the privilege of being at Seattle Mind Camp this past weekend. Here’s a gathering of uber geeks. No group of people in the world knows and uses technology with more devotion than these people. These are the culture makers and shapers of the internet, and of the technologies that build the internet. And what do they want from Mind Camp? Human contact! Networking.

Every single one of them has a blog. Google them. You’ll find them leaving their droppings all over the net. So it’s not like we couldn’t find out about these important people, even interact with them directly online. They’re always plugged in. Like Neo in the Matrix. But something happens when you get all of these cyborgs together in a room. It’s a human thing. It’s a technology thing. A veritable mashup of people and technology.

Glue is more organic and fluid than the stick-links of your typical graph.

So, Node Glue. There you have it.

“Hello, World.”

That’s the first thing a programmer is supposed to say when he starts writing in a new language. After over two years of standing back and looking at this whole blogging movement with some bewilderment, I’ve finally decided to learn and speak the language.

Why? (you might ask)

Because it’s a new day on the internet. Today, the internet is about people, not computers. We’ve had bulletin boards for a long, long time. And listservs and chat forums. But I’ve finally realized that blog’s are distinctly human–it’s personal.

The first class citizen of a discussion forum is a discussion, or perhaps a topic.

The first class citizen of a blog is a person. The entries tend to be informal, human, earthy. It’s the daily grind. One day on, another day off. Some days inspired. Some days sick and tired. And that’s what humans are like. The readers of a blog can see the fingerprint of a personality emerge from post to post. Due to the spontaneity, informality, and dated entry, personality is communicated more clearly than formal newletter email lists or random topic oriented discussion forums.

Page Rank is another indicator that it’s about people. One blogger linking to another blogging is reaching out to shake his hand. He does so this in public, like when a movie star receives an oscar: “I’d like to thank Joe, without whom this would not have been possible.” All of a sudden Joe, whom no one had ever heard of before, is now heard of.

Or in any other case where one person gains fame because by association with someone more famous. My most recent favorite example of this is Larry David. I had no idea how funny this guy was. Why do I care about him at all? Because of Seinfeld. Seinfeld is a big deal. And when Seinfeld says something good about Larry David, then on Seinfeld’s credentials, I know that Larry must truly be good. And you know what, he is. Trisha (my wife) and I just finished Neflixing the last of the back seasons of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Funniest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. So I have Seinfeld to thank for “linking” me to Larry David.

Why are blogs rising in popularity so quickly? It’s because at the end of the day, people are still trying to network to other people. What’s really interesting about the internet is the people. Humans have a design that commands our interest and curiosity long after our fascination with technology cools to boredom.

So this concludes my Hello, World post. In the near future, I’ll explain what in the world “node glue” means.