Ooooh, very nice!! He should never be allowed to wear shirts.

Bacchus, the sociogram is fascinating but assuming neither that the list is accurate or inaccurate because I don't actually know, I have some disagreement with it.

1. First, I agree that Brooke is very social. For that reason alone, her circle should be heavily intersecting with at least one of the strong women. I'd go with Tonya as the physically strong one and then with Colie as a result of natural alliance that always exists within a season when there are outside threats. After that, she should also have a connection to Kelly Anne and Ashli because those two are smart enough to have seen the largely internet reaction to Brooke's ability to bring drama. For your first challenge, you should be about getting as much attention as possible since history says you are going home early.

2. Robin and Johanna need to be two fully intersecting circles since both will be fully isolated from the others who will see them as threats. Assuming your sociologist friend is right and knows of an outside connection between Colie and Johanna, that might mean there should be a dotted line between the two. I can't imagine what she brings to Johanna's game. Robin might well be trying to form the kind of larger alliance the sociogram suggests, but certainly those in the smaller circles of the Robin sphere of influence would see themselves as the "Cerie" of any alliance with Robin... useful until no longer needed. That argues that the new people should band together to eliminate Robin quickly.

3. I don't see Tonya as the "Lone Ranger" depicted. It you look at the outside influence as the guys, then those circles should be touching and the new people gravitating toward her. You can't ignore the experience of someone going on her 7th challenge, tying Beth for the record. Every person from Hollywood, Sydney and Denver has the opportunity to connect with Tonya. She is known to be fiercely loyal on the challenges, even if occasionally wrongly so. Knowing that she and Derrick were on Inferno 3 together and won it says they are a force to be respected and alligned with if possible.

Maybe I'll come back with some other thoughts after some coffee, but I woke up with these reactions this morning after thinking about the sociogram for a day.

Final idea... The sociogram is an idea casting tool. If you know the people well enough, you should be able to predict the potential drama and even work to exploit it happening for it's story value..I. wonder if BMP uses something similar. Sticky notes probably work well for this.

Yes, she is a highly social animal - but not in a genuine manner (as indicated by the "Least Sincere" moniker.) She is outwardly loquacious while inherently being in turmoil. From that we can infer she does not form meaningful bonds with peers, which is why she does not diametrically fall into the social radius of the other female competitors.

The amount of common overlap between Robin and Johanna is to scale in respect to the real world relationship between Colie and Johanna. From the data I provided to my social cartographer (culled from reliable external sources) it would be safe to assume that Johanna and Colie are the strongest actual alliance amongst the woman present (which supersedes the natural alliance derived via personality compatibility and analogous game objectives shared between Johanna and Robin.)

You need to take into account the fact that she is the old guard and even though many of her "blood rivals" are not present, her reputation proceeds her. I can concede that her relationships with the men (especially Derrick) could in some respects change the relative weighting in a big picture view, but in reality such relationships outside her contemporaries (the women) only act to further engorge the schism depicted.

Very good question. I bet that they do something on the same lines all though I am sure they have much more accurate information provided through people who specialize in the field. I am just an armchair "activist" with a laptop and a few friends on myspace.

Now this is a discussion I can sink my teeth into! Hopefully more will join in. I think all of our insights have merit. Unfortunately, we won't know until the challenge is over which ones are right and which are wrong. I don't put any particular stock in my musings above but thought a contrary offering for the purposes of discussion might be useful.

Hey I was wondering why they would cast Tyrie if he already quit a challege? You would think that he would be off the list for future challenges...I can't rememebr what his reason was for leaving though, I think it was something to do with his GF...

You know, that is a very good point Stacee. I understand that he had a valid reason for leaving, but you would think that it would still affect the level of confidence that production had in him.

To be honest, I am not 100% sure on his placement in the cast line-up and reserve the right to remove him from the list in the near future should I not hear further evidence of his inclusion in the challenge.

I am thinking that his name is being tossed around to perhaps throw us off the scent of someone more popular?

yes stacee his girl was in the hospital.