My college is a small one. I knew the faces of most everyone there with me, if not all of their names. But it’s also large enough that there are people who never interact even if their courses run parallel. Large enough that you can’t really keep in touch with everyone connected with what you do, so you form groups with some of those people. Ideally the groups form all sorts of intersecting circles that can enrich each other, growing and shrinking as needed, rather than static independent cliques.

I think of the edublogsphere or spheres in a similar way. Large enough that even the most connected don’t know everybody, small enough that when you meet someone new it’s not terribly difficult to find a common connection. It’s like Graham’s initial venn diagram. And just because a few circles are concentric, doesn’t mean they all are.

One of my goals in face-to-face life is to be better at connecting people who should know each other. I’m starting small–like introducing two friends, new to the city, who like the same football team. Maybe I’ll figure out how to do that online as well.