malcolm chamberlain

At '24 hours...' Steve Collins gave a fascinating presentation on network theory from the world of mathematics. Although my brain couldn't quite keep up with Steve's (!) I did grab hold of one or two nuggets that seem to be particularly relevant to the emerging church, in particular the idea that, since we all have limits to how much we can network (the 150 rule states that we can only have meaningful relationships with 150 other people - our 'monkeysphere'), it is benefitial for any community to task one or two members with networking externally so that the group is not isolated and remains connected to a larger network. I guess this is something we're attempting to do in the Dream network (though none of us had prior knowledge of the mathematical theory!) - time will tell if it does lead to a richer community life.

Steve has generously posted his notes 'here' both as text and as a Quicktime movie file, so go and check it out for yourself! In addition, Jonny has blogged his thoughts about Steve's presentation 'here', and wikipedia's article on small-world networks is 'here'.

Labels: networks