[Air-L] viral sampling

[Barry Wellman]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Mon, 12 May 2008 09:42:48 -0400
From: Barry Wellman <wellman at chass.utoronto.ca>
To: taryn ferris <taryn.ferris.hands.project at googlemail.com>,
     social networks list <socnet at lists.ufl.edu>
Subject: viral sampling

Taryn, What you're doing is called "snowball sampling" and has been around
for about 30 years in sociology -- altho not widely used there.

Some key authors to search for are Bonnie Erickson and Ove Frank. (Bonnie
is "near" you for a few months in Japan, so you might want to talk with
her by phone. She knows more than me.)

The only online use I know of, for a different purpose, is Duncan Watts
and colleagues at Columbia Sociology, who did a small-world study whose
object was to trace the snowballing itself as an indicator of
connectivity.

Good luck,

 Barry Wellman
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