Network Mapping

There are extant network systems all around us, from supplier/consumer/reseller systems, 'friendship' metric social networking websites, ecological systems, and of course computer-computer networks. A few of us think analysis of these sytems is fascinating. What systems do we want to analyze?

Social

Friendship Networking

Facebook, Myspace

Professional Networking

LinkedIn, Monster.com

Appreciation Networking

Twitter, Digg

Collection

• Email FWD "To:" lists
  • Immensely useful is regenerating people's contact lists, especially their 'fave 5' or 'most likely to read' friends.
  • The major flaw is that the "To:" line is carried through each and every FWD iteration.
  • Recovery may be difficult, but possible. We would only expect to retrieve the data when the loop closes, on only paths that lead back to us, but with branching information from each node it passed through
  • Terribly useful to spammers (do they already do this? could be used with spam analysis?)
  • Learn about people you don't know
  • Learn about the friends of your friends
  • Surreptitiously/passively build a network map of a social group you are not part of.
  • Could be automated for extra fun.
  • Finally, a way to abuse those horribly annoying email FWDs, and get back at the people who thought you cared.
  • Thousands of pictures of cats and cartoons about sex and God