Phil, it sounds from the follow-on conversation so far like you're mainly interested in *quantifying* the relationships between "hives" and "hubs", which is well outside my purview, but if you're interested in a discussion of *why* different people fail to effectively communicate, and how that relates to the circle of people with which they regularly interact, then I'd strongly recommend Walter Lippman's "Public Opinion", and in particular the first three sections of the book. Despite being written when Harding was president, Lippman's observations about how the limited ability of an individual to directly interface/interact with all the world's information creates a need for stereotypes through which that information is filtered, and that once that information is filtered you effectively have different preceptions of reality which impact the ability to communicate, still make sense in the internet age. He also has a good discussion of why individuals largely reject information which doesn't fit into their existing stereotypes.
Bill ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
