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Skimming this granted patent I see a lot of “prior art” from work I have seen in SNA papers, presentations, in my work, and that of other social network analysts.  Of course, none of the patent’s references are to any scholarly/serious work in this area. The screenshots look like many network data gathering forms I have seen others use.  Reading the “Background of the Invention” sounds like it was true in the mid-1980s, but NOT today!  Seems like they read an early edition of Rogers’ “Diffusion of Innovations” and then froze in time.

Link to the full patent is here:  http://1.usa.gov/1W4h3ji

Valdis Krebs
Orgnet, LLC
Twitter/Skype: @orgnet
http://orgnet.com
http://thenetworkthinkers.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valdis_Krebs

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