The Six Degrees of seperation is arguably the most exciting discoveries..(IMHO)...it says that no matter where you are, what you do, whom you personally know, there can be a maximum of only 6 people in between you and any other person in this world...I looked upon this with scekptism, untill I myself discovered this in Orkut(The online community of Google)...Here in Orkut, you can find anyone(provided they are also members) within 6 other people.. It works like this..I have friend, who has another friend, whose friend is a friend of my immediate friend..then the branch goes on and you can find the relationship extending not more than 6 people inbetween. Taking the cue from this theory, the article in the link says that by using these links, you can derive value for your company's R&D department...also useful here is to remember the quote(I dont know by whom)..."The best companies are net exporter of talent"...the R&D talent of any company cannot be held in a vaccum..The information flow has to be enabled both within the organisation and outside it..the nature of a R&D setup dictates that, to be commercially viable it has to continuosly share knowledge and interact with outside and inside forces. The article(rather the interview) focuses on the issues relating to this.