Throughout the writing on the site, the quotes and the papers in the library a common theme is that everything of value, innovation, wealth, happiness ... all come from relations with others. This has certainly been my experience and this section is to thank and acknowledge some of the people who create me. There are many, many more wonderful people that have influence me in many ways, and this is just a short list of some of those who have had the most affect on me. These are professional contacts (Velzoe and I were in a band together). In addition to these (and I am sure I have forgotten people, and will add them).

Velzoe Brown - Velzoe became a professional musician at 16 years old, joining an all woman's dance band. Her 100th birthday will be on March 1, 2010, so she first started her life as a professional musician in 1926. Her energy, positive attitudes, insight and more are one of the things I am truly grateful in my life. (link to SF chronicle article). She taught me how to feel good performing music. Besides all that she is my good friend, we spend hours talking about anything and everything.

Mark Granovetter - Mark is a member of the National Academy of Science and of the most highly regarded sociologists. Because his"strength of weak ties" theory was mentioned in the Tipping Point he has become well known outside of academics. He has been an inspiration as a teacher, mentor, colleague and friend.

John Grinder - John and I met while I was a linguistics student at UC Santa Cruz. We started to work together on a natural language parser of English. John's and my lives because somewhat intertwined for a time and we remain like brothers.

Neal Gorenflo - Neil is now marketing director of Sharable.net and represents FAS Research in the US. He is also a co-founder and now keeping up the Abundance League, a grass roots effort for social change.

Harald Katzmair - Harald is CEO and founder of FAS Research, one of the primer companies that does Social Network Analysis (SNA) worldwide. Harald is currently interested in resilience, how do identities reconstruct themselves to both maintain their identity and survive. We have spent many hours collaborating, brainstorming and supporting each other.

Harri Oinas-Kukkonen - Harri is one of the most respected and well known scholars in Information Systems, my thesis advisor and friend. Harri has pushed me to write, teach and compete in an academic setting.

Kjell Olsson - Kjell and I have worked together at Hewlet-Packard and Byteshield, he is a good friend who has always supported me and my work.

Matti Pyykkönen - Mätti is a consultant that is currently focusing on innovation. Mätti was my first connection to Finland, something that lead to a close bond with the country, many close friendships and more personal growth than I could ever express.

Alan Smith - Alan helped me with this Web site, doing the navigation, graphics, color, layout and more.

Greg Reeve-Wilson - I met Greg as a freshman in high school. He is an attorney specializing in litigation and especially trials.

Harrison White - Harrison inspired me to go beyond social networks into a broader look at human interaction. Contributing to Identity and Control was one of the most intense learning experiences of my life.