Nathan CrauseMusings of a Software Developer

On the weekend, I was pondering the notion of 6 degrees of separation - if you're unfamiliar with the concept: the idea is that within 6 "degrees" (a degree being you know someone [one degree] who knows somebody [that you might not know - one more degree]) everybody in the world is covered. So - I know somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, who knows somebody, who knows George Bush.

Several attempts have been made to try to prove this, but as you can imagine it's a rather difficult task.

The idea occurred to me that if we assume that users on social networking sites are exactly who they say they are (i.e. assuming we don't have people creating accounts under the name "Patrick Stewart", when they are not said person), then I wonder if the concept could (at least theoretically) be "proven" by following friends lists.

Just a thought, but it'd be interesting to see. I'd certainly like to see if I have some connection with the president of Mongolia.