The Bathtub: Too Much Information: Networking

In theory, I really like Jerome's theme this week. I think it's one of the best yet. And I love how he encouraged everyone to give the inside scoop on whatever it is they happen to be an expert on. However, theory often departs from reality, and in my case the reality is stark: my job revolves around making PowerPoint presentations and Microsoft Word documents, and these things are no more interesting behind the scenes than they are in front of them. If you don't believe me, check the Microsoft Office help page. There are no hidden treats.

I do, however, know a lot about the inner workings of this blog, so I decided to make a chart to explore the tangled web of relations that brought us all to the tub in the first place.

I tried as best as I could to map out the various connections that link the tubtributors, and I found in my investigatory investigations that these connections run deep indeed. I started with the following (click to enlarge), a blank slate upon which to build my network:

Next, I connected anyone who went to elementary school together:

I hid those lines momentarily and then focused on connecting anyone who went to middle school together:

I also made a map of who went to high school together:

College (this was kind of tricky because some people went to Maryland together but didn't actually know each other while there, so I tried to leave those lines out):

I also had to account for my friendship with D.C., which created the need for a graph mapping the network of Bathtub Contributors Who Did Church Youth Group Together:

Then came the chart of which contributors are dating:

And who met other group members through one of these relationships:

And of course, which members met exclusively through the Tub (a chart that is heavily populated by the lines connecting D.C. to everyone but me):

Next, I laid all of these various sets of lines over one another to get one gigantic network:

But that network seemed meaningless, as it did nothing to differentiate between the different types of relationships the lines represented. So I added color using the following key--