Topologies of Communication in D.C.

The reading assigned this week dealing with topologies of communication draws interesting parallels between the social and professional relationships in Washington D.C. The author describes topologies as the structure of links and nodes. He begins by illustrating an example from Facebook.  Facebook allows you to view the profile of your friends and also see mutual friends that exist. By clicking on one friend, you can see their entire network of friends and draw conclusions about their social and professional connections. In essence, this makes Facebook, a small world.

After living in D.C. for nearly a year, I am convinced that D.C. is extremely small in terms of social and professional connections and ultimately your networks will overlap. In this case, size is not a matter of scale, but of connection (Callon and Law, 2004). Topological communication disregards Euclidean geometry and measures of space all together. Similar to Facebook, the connections and networks in D.C. are similarly aligned. For example, people with similar interests are going to “Like “the same pages, post similar blogs, and comment on similar news. This interaction slowly brings individuals together who share a common interest. After a period of time, members of these social networks begin to know each other informally and can strengthen their relationships and network based upon their online commentary. Similar to D.C., if you have an interest in international relations, you will see some of the same people at talks that occur at the Council on Foreign Relations, The State Department and the Center for Strategic Studies. After more frequent encounters, not only do the individuals attending these events begin to become familiar with one another, but they are also exposed to the friends and other networks that these other people may have. To further explain, Grovenetter expresses this idea in terms of weak ties and strong ties. Strong ties dominate the social network by linking us to friends, family, fellow colleagues and employers. Weak ties cross between clusters of strongly tied people, but reach separate places and spheres.  (Granovetter 1973). Professionals in D.C. use the power of strong and weak ties in D.C. daily. People use this strategy to secure employment, to gain information and even to be granted access to special events.

The topologies both on Facebook and D.C make our networks more connected. The more people you know in D.C. increases your chances of knowing or being informed about what is going on in the area. Additionally, it’s not only about the people you know on Facebook or in D.C. What matters most is how many of those people know you. The topologies of communication make our social and professional life closer than ever.