***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ ***** Weren't there a pair of Boorman pieces on social networks in the Times many years ago, long before the physicists noticed networks? And something on Moreno a few decades before? Although, if memory serves (which means it mostly doesn't), those early articles had something vaguely disturbing in common with the current physicist-inspired ones -- an arrogant new- science-of-everything sort of flavor. Maybe somebody can give the references and I can see if I'm making it all up ... steve. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Wellman" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Sunday, January 26, 2003 11:05 AM Subject: Erroneous facts > ***** To join INSNA, visit http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/ ***** > > Dear Fellow Socnetters, > > I was both enthralled by the NY Times story last week discovering social > network analysis and shocked by the claim that the field only got started > with physicists in the 1990s. Duncan Watts, our recent keynoter, is > prominently quoted, but I don't hold these factual mis-statements against > him, as I've seen newspaper reporters -- including the Times -- do weird > things before (to me). > > However, I have sent off the letter below to the NY Times. Perhaps you'd > also like to educate them. > > Barry > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director > [log in to unmask] http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman > > Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto > 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 > ___________________________________________________________________ > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Sun, 26 Jan 2003 11:02:33 -0500 > From: Barry Wellman <[log in to unmask]> > To: new york times letters <[log in to unmask]> > Cc: duncan watts <[log in to unmask]> > Subject: Erroneous facts > > Emily Eakin's story Jan 25 story ("Connect, They Say, Only Connect") makes > a huge factual mistake by saying that network analysis as a discipline > only started when physicists discovered it in the late 1990s. In reality, > it's been going strong since the 1960s, with a substantial body of theory, > method and substance. There are three journals [Social Networks, > Connections - both published since the 1970s; and the Journal of Social > Structure], an annual international and interdisciplinary conference > (happening for about the 30th time next month), and an international > society with about 500 members (the International Network for Social > Network Analysis, which I founded in 1977). It's great that physicists > (and the NY Times) are joining an already flourishing party. > > Barry > > ___________________________________________________________________ > > Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director > [log in to unmask] http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman > > Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto > 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 > ___________________________________________________________________ > > _____________________________________________________________________ > SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social > network researchers (http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/). To unsubscribe, send > an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line > UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message. > _____________________________________________________________________ SOCNET is a service of INSNA, the professional association for social network researchers (http://www.sfu.ca/~insna/). To unsubscribe, send an email message to [log in to unmask] containing the line UNSUBSCRIBE SOCNET in the body of the message.