If only I could find the right sequence of people, I could get the article passed on to him. Such chains of association exist. A new network model designed by a Cornell University computer science professor makes it easier to find those short routes. But that it's possible to actually find the short paths, and to find them without a map. You don't have to have a bird's-eye view of the network.
Some networks are more orderly than others.
For instance, mailing a copy of this article to Will Smith would be easy. An addressed package would enter a carefully designed system, where it would be collected, sorted, transported and delivered according to specific rules and hierarchies. Other networks, though, like societal connections, the World Wide Web and neural pathways, aren't designed, they just happen. And indeed, it turns out to be possible. Kleinberg's model has implications for both human and computer networking.