The Networkers Network: A Study of the Impact of a New Communications Medium on Sociometric Structure

摘要

Forty social scientists and mathematicians, all concerned with problems in the study of social networks, were linked together by means of a computer to facilitate their interpersonal communication. The present paper presents the early results of this experiment. Interpersonal linkage patterns among participants prior to the start of the experiment were used as a 'base line' from which the impact of this unique medium of communication was examined. The authors attempt to uncover some of the dimensions of sociometric patterns as they have developed through and around the computer based network of networkers.