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By a strange coincidence I was reading the relevant section in Boswell's bio
of Johnson last night. Two quotes from the same page (p81 of the 1960
edition edited by Fuller and published by Dell, NY):

        "His definition of Network has been often quoted with sportive
malignity, as obscuring a thing in itself very plain"

And then, Boswell quotes from Johnson's Preface to the first edition of the
Dictionary:

        "... for the easiest word, whatever it be, can never be translated
into one more easy"

Michael Foulds


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Social Networks Discussion Forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Wolfe, Alvin
> Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 6:08 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: wikipedia vs. simple wikipedia
>
> *****  To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org  *****
>
> On defining "network":
>
> The first published definition of "network" was, I believe,
> Samuel Johnson's, in his Dictionary of the English Language
> (1755):  "Any thing reticulated or decussated, at equal
> distances, with interstices between the intersections."
>
> In his own Dictionary of Quotations, 20th Century philologist
> Bergen Evans said of this definition:  "This remains one of
> the best definitions of network we have.... Of all Johnson's
> definitions, this excited most ridicule.  But the obvious is
> not easy to define; of necessity, the simplest must be
> defined in terms less simple" (1968:483).
>
> --Alvin Wolfe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Social Networks Discussion Forum
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Cassidy, Erin
> Sent: Tuesday, January 04, 2005 2:59 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: wikipedia vs. simple wikipedia
>
>
> *****  To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org  *****
>
> Joshua,
>
> I agree with you. I just wanted to point out that this was
> not their comprehensive site.
>
> Cheers!
>
> Erin Cassidy
> tel/tél: 990-9272 | fax/télécopieur: 941-0986
> [log in to unmask] Planning and Performance
> Management | Planification et gestion du rendement National
> Research Council Canada | M58, 1200 Montreal RoadConseil
> national de recherches Canada | M58 1200, chemin Montréal
> Ottawa, Canada K1A 0R6
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Joshua O'Madadhain [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: January 4, 2005 2:53 PM
> To: Cassidy, Erin
> Cc: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [SOCNET] wikipedia vs. simple wikipedia
>
> On 4 Jan 2005, at 9:57, Cassidy, Erin wrote:
>
> > *****  To join INSNA, visit http://www.insna.org  *****
> >
> > A humbly submitted clarification regarding wikipedia's inaccurate
> > description of SNA. The previous email referred to the
> definition at
> > this
> > URL:
> > http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
> >
> > The simple in the URL indicates that this is not the standard
> > Wikipedia. Simple English uses fewer words and easier
> grammar than the
> > original English Wikipedia. It is focused on readers who tend to be
> > quite different people with different needs: students,
> children, and
> > translators. From:
> > http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Simple_English_Wikipedia
> >
> > Wikipedia's "real" article can be found here:
> > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_network
>
> Erin:
>
> Thanks for clarifying the distinction.  However, simplicity
> doesn't have to imply inaccuracy.  (Imprecision, perhaps.)
>
> As a side note, if there are any educators that want to take
> a stab at the Simple version, neither its language nor its
> vocabulary strike me as being particularly well-suited to
> (younger) students or children. (How many children will
> recognize "contagion", "analytically", "diffusion", or "affect"?)
>
> Regards,
>
> Joshua O'Madadhain
>
> jmadden@ics.uci.edu...Obscurium Per
> Obscurius...www.ics.uci.edu/~jmadden
> Joshua O'Madadhain: Information Scientist, Musician, and
> Philosopher-At-Tall
>    It's that moment of dawning comprehension that I live
> for--Bill Watterson
>    My opinions are too rational and insightful to be those of
> any organization.
>
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> _____________________________________________________________________
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