[updated with reasons why you most likely would not want to interpret anything below as implying anything in particular. This update came as a result of eivind's diary entry and it's shameless accusation of implication] But seriously. Yes of course, if you are doing research or anything not entirely whimsical, you do want to look at the dataset from compaq [more accurately, DEC SRC, the same people that came up with the crazy moon language that makes cvsup go], each-to-each, the papers in the cacm on recommender systems, etc, etc. But as many have pointed out, there are few things we love more than talking about ourselves, individually and as a community. So in this context, the Advogato data is certainly more _entertaining_, at least to me.

I've been playing around with the graph a little... It's easier to try to understand the metric by poking your finger in it. Plus, who needs datasets from Compaq when we have a perfectly entertaining one here. I didn't get to the metric though, extracting useless stats from the graph was too much of a distraction. So, sometime Monday evening:

Level: Master        118     11.67%
Level: Journeyer     336     33.23%
Level: Apprentice     93      9.20%
Level: Observer      464     45.90%
Data for            1011 users total
                    
7199 certs total

 

Apprentices are an endangered and rare species. I can't tell whether this is a function of the metric or of the qualified (or immodest or self-congratulatory) user base. Get it together, apprentices! Remember what happened to the Dimwits?

The graph is richly connected at the core, as expected. Connectivity between the seeds and those one hop away:

Number of nodes in seed     'hood:  116
Number of edges within seed 'hood: 1172 

The 'master-to-master' network (masters certifying other masters as masters) looks similar:

Number of nodes in master net: 118
Number of edges in master net: 738

Apprentices are fairly stingy with the 'Apprentice' rating. The 'apprentice-to-apprentice' network is much more sparse. Apprentices are perhaps more likely to know and be known to the more active contributors in their projects. And there is the 'apprentice' word stigma.

Number of nodes in apprentice net:  93
Number of edges in apprentice net: 120

In fact, they even fit on a basic dot graph in default- ugly mode, once the apprentice-unreachable nodes are removed. ugly graph. Improve your apprentice-connectivity, join the julian cluster today!

And then there's always the option of reducing the whole thing to a popularity contest in irrelevant but easily measurable criteria.

Top 10 cert'ed: |Top 10 cert'ers:   |Top 10 connected:
alan     204    |yosh    96         |alan    261
miguel   162    |ole     83         |yosh    181
raph     106    |asmodai 83         |raph    174
yosh      85    |andrei  77         |miguel  165
federico  78    |mjs     74         |joey    120
tigert    73    |joey    70         |ole     118
hp        73    |raph    68         |mjs     117
jwz       72    |timj    63         |asmodai 110
shaver    63    |uzi     60         |andrei  104
Telsa     55    |kelly   59         |uzi     104