In fact Stephenson, a corporate anthropologist with a PhD in anthropology, a master's in mathematical modeling in anthropology and a bachelor's in chemistry, has developed algorithms that quantify the value of a social network. And her work isn't just ivory-tower academic noodlings. Stephenson spent 14 years in the corporate world prior to her present incarnation. It was there, she says, that she became fascinated by corporate social networks. Most people mistakenly think of social networks as soft and fuzzy with no backbone, but Stephenson says they're actually rather rigid.
Social networks have a pattern, and the underlying structure is the same across all cultures.
There are patterns of interaction that are the same whether you're Japanese, French or American. It's a diagnostic tool at a very high level. If you have a marketing communications department, there's a great need to communicate among the different groups, like trade show people, technical publications, graphics and corporate communications. We did that on a selected basis. But there were groups, such as technical publications and direct marketing, that were disconnected from the rest of marketing.