Six+Degrees+of+Separation

Six degrees...

This is a game based loosely on the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon and the play Six Degrees of Separation. It is not really my game but I adapted if for online community development in the Communities of Practice Workshop. It posits that anyone is connected to anyone in less than six degrees of separation. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Degrees_of_Kevin_Bacon http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/six_degrees_game/

In our workshop version people are given a challenge to connect to a specific person. The trick is that they have to do it through others (up to five) in the workshop cohort. I know this smells like all the warm up activities that people hate but in this case even the most reluctant people and hardened trainers have fun in the challenge. In their search people really are reminded about the multidimensional nature of human beings in general and the the people about them in particular. So it is that we learn that tango dancing is a link between Argentina and Nepal or that edible gardens are popular in Australia and Oregon or my favorite that almost everyone has a Canadian story to tell.

Because of the game people write very different introductions than those they might otherwise. They leave hints for others in the various online discussions and really have a reason to read about each other. As you might imagine they are trying to offer links by talking about family, hobbies, studies, holidays and loads of really interesting things, often with images and photos, that open up the human dimension. In their solutions people write the steps, draw global maps, create concept maps and get so creative it blows me away. It is a joy to watch people play every time and the funny thing is only about a third complete the challenge - but no-one cares it is about joining in and exploring what each other is about.

Anyhow that's the game in a nutshell.

Bronwyn Stuckey