Mystery of the Mystery Stole Tipping

Back in 2000, Malcolm Gladwell wrote The Tipping Point. Having seen him speak at Connecticut Forum in 2006, I decided I wanted to read the book. It is, so far, an excellent book. The main premise laid out in the book is that social phenomena in the world can be explained as epidemics. Starting with the Hush Puppies revolution in NYC and including all manner of cultural phenomenon such as Paul Revere’s ride and Sesame Street, the book is both accessable and interesting. However, as go all things lately, this book got the knitting and blogging juices flowing. Most recently, both knitting and various electronic knitting forums have exploded in our culture. The New York Times recently did an article about the rise in young knitters and craftsters. An explosion of novels and pattern books has splattered across Borders, Barnes and Noble, and other bookstores nationwide. The immense number of individuals going to see the  Yarn Harlot at her books signings can attest to this explosion.  

This got me thinking about the importance of the rise of the internet in our society. Most recently, the Mystery Stole 3 managed to capture national and international attention. The first year, according to the blog, about 760 or so were involved. The second year there were 1061. This year, the number more than sextupled such that the Yahoo! group has 6654 people in it. What caused this? Why are so many people signed up?

Gladwell’s concept of the Tipping Point, more eleoquently put in his book with greater detail, is that you need a collection of three types of people - Mavens (people with information), Connectors (people who know people), and Salesmen (people who can keep you interested in the idea and sell it to you) - and a certain “stickiness factor” in order to attain a tipping point. The MS3 poses a unique version of this in that 1) it has been spread both online and in person and 2) although it occurred over three years, it occurs for a limited period of time, then stops, and has only really happened three times so is not a continuous phenomena like fashion.

The Mavens in this case may or may not be obvious. The fascinating aspect of this is that the Mavens are people that many do not know in person, bloggers living in the world of the internet. Mavens obtain the information. Melanie at Pink Lemon Twist put out the word. People who have been involved in the past knew it was coming. These people had the information. However, the Connectors here are the interesting part of this. The Internet has created a new type of Connector. Access to new people has expanded immensely. Information was spread through numerous blogs, which connect people in different states and countries. Information was spread through different online communities such as myspace, Ravelry (which is its own interesting application of The Tipping Point), and Get Stitchy!, among others. These online communities create a forum for Connectors and Salesmen to connect with others.

Connectors are people who know people in many different groups. Connectors are, according to Gladwell, the “glue” amongst different groups of people. In online communties, the need for Connectors diminishes to a great extent. A posting board, for example, with a title labeled Mystery Stole 3 does not depend on one reader knowing the original poster. Additionally, the communities themselves become the Connectors. The Connectors are no longer people who glue people together, but they are the html codes that connect people with similar interests.

MS3 is an interesting application of this principal in that it is a specific type of knitting, lace knitting. Not everyone is a lace knitter. Indeed, I myself have never knit lace. I joined MS3, but for various reasons have yet to actually buy the yarn yet (the new puppy, mainly, has kept me too busy thus far). However, a friend of mine nearby was into it. Then, Amy from my myspace group was all into it, so I read about it online. Then Yarn Harlot got sucked into it. Then I got suckered. Like a little lemming. However, no single individual was the “Connector”. Indeed, for me the connector was not an individual person, but the link to the internet which allowed for a metabrowser search for last year’s project. Frighteningly enough, the need for “people” Connectors may be diminishing due to the rise of the internet in the last ten years.

An even more interesting note to all of this is that much of what Gladwell discusses about Salesmen is their ability to interact with others in person. Salesmen have unique charismatic properties to their personalities. For example, Salesmen know innately how to involve people in conversation, how to use body language to express themselves, and how to make people feel comfortable.  How, then, does this translate to online communities where people are disconnected physically but connected emotionally? This becomes hard to explain. For example, it was not my local friend whom I see once a week who got me interested in MS3. It was a friend I have never met in person and a person who has no idea I exist.  How do these people manage to have this charismatic property that sells me on the idea of doing something I would normally have no interest in? In all honesty, I have no idea. It begs the question as to whether the written presentation of information has a draw based on language choice alone.

Knitting and its ability to help people form bonds around a common interest poses a unique application of many things in life. Knitting is, in itself, both solitary and community oriented. People can knit by themselves. People look to join knitting groups where socializing and connecting is the main goal, as opposed to getting a lot of knitting accomplished.  Perhaps the explosion of MS3 is due to it being part of a niche community. However, 6654 people is still a large number, especially for a niche community. At the beginning of the explosion, a major newspaper in the United States interviewed the woman running MS3 for an article. This, then, places interest in MS3 outside of the niche knitting community and into the general populace. This movement from niche to general is the heart of The Tipping Point. However, while people are involved, the majority of the elements that make something “tip” are not based on the traditional methods. The MS3 phenomenon relies entirely on electronic connections as opposed to interpersonal connections. The mystery of the Mystery Stole phenomenon, then, lies not in the traditional human Connectors, Mavens and Salesmen, but in the electronic Connector of the internet.