Where does the power really lie in the UK? Channel 4 has just launched an interactive website, Who Knows Who, to reveal the connections between politicians, celebrities and business leaders. A colourful flash map details connections by education, club membership or acquaintance, allowing users to explore who is chums with whom among the great and the good. Users are also asked to contribute, rate stories and comment on them.
The project sounds pretty ambitious: "Our ultimate goal is to build the biggest network of connections in the UK - we have currently mapped around 6,000 connections - but we aim to multiply that many times over.
"By exposing the often surprising and revealing connections between the powerful elite, we will be able to hold them to account more closely," says the Channel 4 new media commissioning editor, Vicky Taylor. And the design done by TUI Interactive Media is lovely indeed, although the matching of the details is a bit rough.
At the moment there are not so many connections because at launch it concentrates on the ones coming out of the Channel 4 documentary When Boris Met Dave. But Channel 4 has announced the project as being sustainable and not just a PR stunt - the Channel 4 News and current affairs team will add new topics and stories, and the technology will be offered as open source soon.
Users are welcome to suggest investigations as well as contributing stories, people and connections. The project even asks on its website - in a commendable transparent manner - for people to "tell us if we've gone wrong somewhere. Also let us know if you know of any established data sources that we could incorporate." Well, go ahead.
