Scientific Experiment
There is a game known as ’6 Degrees of Separation’ (from Kevin Bacon – no relation to the best of my knowledge). The way the game works is to try to connect 2 famous people via 6 associations. We have been watching the blogsphere for the last year or so and believe that nearly all blogging homeschoolers will hear about important news items, etc. within 3 days of the first mention in a HS blog.
This experiment will work as follows:
1- If this is the first blog in which you have seen this post and you would like to contribute to the experiment, copy the entire post and post it in your blog.
2- Modify the post to add a link to your blog which displays the appropriate degree you are from the original in the following list:
{original, first degree, second degree, third degree, fourth degree, fifth degree, sixth degree}
That way, visitors can directly see the chain of communication that ended with this post in your blog.
3- Leave a comment in the blog where you first viewed this post indicating that your blog is among the next degree.
4- If you are a homeschooler or are interested in/considering homeschooling and either do not have a blog, would prefer not to blog this or the sixth degree is already taken, you can still contribute to this experiment by leaving a comment in the blog where you first read it.
5- After 3 days report back how many people read, commented and blogged based on your post to the blog where you first read this. (They only report this blog would receive is from the degree below and this blog will report the total from below and comments here to the degree above.) To illustrate how this would work let’s suppose that in this imaginary example every blog has approximately the same number of readers and that each blog entry for each degree ends up with exactly the same number of comments.
Let’s say that each blog would receive 2 comments where the experiment was posted and 2 comments from non-bloggers. This would produce the following:
original: 2 + 2 = 4
first: ( 2 * 2 ) + 2 = 6
second: ( 2 * 4 ) + 2 = 10
third: ( 2 * 8 ) + 2 = 18
fourth: ( 2 * 16 ) + 2 = 34
fifth: ( 2 * 32 ) + 2 = 66
sixth: ( 2 * 64 ) + 2 = 130
That totals 268. If you change the number of experiment posts to 3, the result is ( 5 + 11 + 29 + 83 + 245 + 731 + 2189 = ) 3293. Consider what the number would be when we average about 60 readers a day. (Welcome to math 101) Let’s allow a week for the reporting to roll back through the earlier degrees.
I’ve just put this on my blog. Sounds interesting – wonder how many people will take part!
BWs
Clare
Comment by Clare — January 3, 2006 @ 4:33 pm
I’m hoping people don’t see this as a popularity contest or as a way to generate traffic. So, I’m hoping for lots ;D
Ron
Comment by Ron or Andrea — January 3, 2006 @ 4:59 pm
HA! All that math – it even caught Mark’s attention as he wandered by behind me
Comment by Billi-Jean — January 3, 2006 @ 9:55 pm
oh yeah… count me among the first degree
Comment by Billi-Jean — January 3, 2006 @ 9:59 pm
2nd place I saw it-1st was Daryl
Comment by traci — January 4, 2006 @ 1:18 pm
I’m a first degree! Fun.
Comment by Melissa Wiley — January 5, 2006 @ 6:30 am
I’m first degree – but I wouldn’t have seen this yet if you hadn’t left a comment on my blog this morning. Can I ask where you found me from? Nice to ‘meet’ you anyway
Comment by Jax — January 6, 2006 @ 6:03 am
Hi, I’m the 4th degree:) I excited, this is a good way to read other people’s blogs, I look forward to reading yours.
God Bless,
Amber
Comment by Amber — January 8, 2006 @ 1:01 am
I’m first degree here, had one second degree at my place. You know, b/c I get so much traffic over there!
Comment by Gem — January 9, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
“We have been watching the blogsphere for the last year or so and believe that nearly all blogging homeschoolers will hear about important news items, etc. within 3 days of the first mention in a HS blog.”
I just wanted to comment and say it’s been 7 days and I’m just seeing this (I’m a 6th degree) … I’m a regular blog reader … I’m not sure all the homeschool blogging circles overlap …
Comment by Kim in MI — January 10, 2006 @ 3:09 pm
[...] Even though it has been a week since I posted this experiment, the experiment is still underway. Today, I received a comment from Kim in MI. Based on her comment it appears that I may have to wait a while longer to get all the results back. I just wanted to comment and say it’s been 7 days and I’m just seeing this (I’m a 6th degree) … I’m a regular blog reader … I’m not sure all the homeschool blogging circles overlap … [...]
Pingback by Atypical Homeschool.net » Scientific Experiment – Part #2 — January 11, 2006 @ 12:00 pm
I guess I’m a first degreer too, although I haven’t posted it yet. It took me a week to get here and it’ll take at least another day for me to feel like posting….it’s unwind and read time in the pm. Cool idea though.
Comment by Kim C. — January 11, 2006 @ 11:26 pm
The Six Degress of Separation experiment
I’ll list this one as an unschooling experiment. I stumbled upon it at Happy as Kings but the original was from {Atypical Homeschool.
There is a game known as ‘6 Degrees of Separation’ (from Kevin Bacon – no relation to the best of my kno…
Trackback by Unschooling Blog — January 14, 2006 @ 4:40 pm
Thanks for playing.
Yes, definitely an unschooling experiment from my perspective.
Part 2 is here:
http://atypicalhomeschool.net/general-information/scientific-experiment-%e2%80%93-part-2/
Ron
Comment by Ron or Andrea — January 14, 2006 @ 5:28 pm
[...] I ended up putting the Scientific Experiment on the back burner for a while. Every once in a while someone would leave a comment indicating that they had seen it somewhere or hadn’t seen it. Once I started coordinating things for the job interview, etc., it ended up in the ‘nice to follow up’ category. [...]
Pingback by Atypical Homeschool.net » Experiment Redux - for eclectic homeschoolers everywhere — February 8, 2006 @ 1:35 am