Social Mapping Experiment at TEDxSanDiego Explores Power of New Social Connections

(PRWEB) March 31, 2011

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, the organizers of TEDxSanDiego (http://www.tedx-sandiego.com) saw an opportunity for a live social experiment to engage participants during break sessions at their inaugural 2010 event. They presented a set of challenges to James Fowler, University of California, San Diego Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science. How could they observe and measure the connections among the attendees with minimal intrusion? How could they encourage participants to expand their interactions rather than merely network and gravitate toward others like themselves? How could those expanded interactions lead to new thinking, expanded ideas and new insights?

Fowler was the perfect partner for the opportunity, said TEDxSanDiego2010 co-organizer Andrea Kates, founder of The Business Genome