Saturday, February 02, 2008

The Influentials theory debunked.

Fast Company runs an article in which Duncan Watts, a network-theory scientist, puts to test the idea that trends are sparked by a handful of highly connected individuals, or the influentials, as they have become known after the best sellers The Tipping Point and The Influentials.

It was Ilya Vedrashko in his Adlab blog who brought me this gem.

The Influentials is debunked. Katz and Lazarsfeld are questioned and Stanley Milgram "Six Degrees of Separation" plays differently when you run the analysis using robust and life size samples.

In an environment where individual values are the starting point and where they are explicated as tokens and when they provide the basis of attraction online which can be proven over and over again, I am with Watts.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous9:23 am

    You're right. In France too, the myth is strong. And french bloggers don't welcome Watts's paper. But nobody can provide french datas!

    ReplyDelete