In a response to my own post about the Friend Wheel Facebook application, here is the same friend wheel I posted previously but this time with labels.

As you can clearly see, the highest area of connectedness lies in my friends from LaGuardia HS (there are two points on the circle for this “group”).

Most of my friends, generally speaking, are from distinct groups that usually have nothing to do with each other. With the exception of ‘Chinatown’ and ‘NYCBC’, most of my friend groups are independent (it should be noted anyway that NYCBC is in Chinatown so maybe that’s not such a big coincidence — but then again, most of NYCBC members aren’t from Chinatown).

Anyway, the harsh intersecting lines that you can see quite clearly when you zoom out from the circle are those particular folks (including myself) who seem to bridge those different groups together. Sometimes it is several lines bunched together that bring one large group together (or at least in some contact) with another group, instead of each member of one group knowing each member of another.

Take special note of how Rutgers/New Jersey looks to be the least connected group of this circle. This probably has a lot to do with me not making many friends when I was actually at Rutgers which explains why there seems to be virtually no connection between Rutgers/New Jersey and the outside world according to this circle (but in reality, I actually know this is untrue).

Another funny thing to point out is that this circle can very accurately show me how I may know a certain group through ONE person. For example, just look at all of the lines drawn between Enid Chan (name located to the right of the ‘Chinatown’ label) and the ‘Michigan’ label at the right of the circle. The lines drawn there date back to January 2007 when I took a trip to Michigan and met all of these folks through Enid.

Also, if you look at the ‘Parsons’ label (at the top right of the circle) you will see several names with NO LINES drawn anywhere except to the names directly to the right and left of them. Since most of my friends at Parsons are from all over the US and some parts of the world, the likelihood that they might know my friends here in NY is just about nil. Similarly, the folks under the ‘Miami’ label fall under the same observation and analysis just mentioned.

Finally, what I think is the coolest and most fascinating part of this whole visual friend circle is that it allows me to see how some people can be connectors (if I can borrow Gladwell’s words) in this wide, wide, circle of friends. Weird, huh!

Similar Posts on Doobybrain.com:

• From The Tipping Point
• Fun but useless: Facebook ‘Friend Wheel’ App
• RMIT timetable for this semester
• The Out Back Mix
• You little bugger, you

This entry was posted on Friday, July 27th, 2007 at 2:07 am and is filed under Information Design, Personal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.