80/20

The '80/20' principle is also known as the 'Pareto Principle'. Vilfredo Pareto discovered that during the early part of the last century that 80 per cent of all land in Italy was owned by 20 per cent of the population. This pattern occurred also in how people worked, generated ideas and owned wealth. This pattern of the minority having or doing the majority follows in industrial categories and social activities. Networks follow this pattern; 20 per cent of members are responsible for 80 per cent of the generated ideas. The diagram depicts this 20 per cent of people put something in and get 80 per cent of the results. This pattern results in 'super-nodes' or 'clusters' as the 20 per cent become more visible through their generated ideas, they are then sourced by others to boost there own power through connections. Super-nodes become power networks in their own right and are used by brands and business to gain information. 

When developing my networks it would be a good idea as well as creating diverse weak-ties to attempt to source super-nodes or clusters.

Image: The 80/20 Rule of Social Media Tracking. 2011. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.techaffect.com/2011/05/11/the-8020-rule-of-social-media-tracking/. [Accessed 09 February 2012].

Diversity

The more diverse (hetrophilous) you make your network the greater the network will become in terms of diversity that flows through it. Your weak-ties should come from all paths of life, different countries, cities, sexuality, gender, class, intellect etc. This is to avoid groupthink which is how friends, associates and networks who know each other intimately begin to think alike; this limits their capacity to explore alternative attitude, views and ideas. 

When creating my networks I need to develop strong weak-ties with a high level of diversity in order to optimise performance and output. 

Image: John Flood's Random Academic Thoughts (RATs): Diversity in the Legal Profession?. 2012. [ONLINE] Available at:http://johnflood.blogspot.com/2010/09/diversity-in-legal-profession.html. [Accessed 09 February 2012].