Interesting patterns emerge when one begins to map connections…

“What is the connection between 3 celebrities, 35 corporations, 40 subsidiaries and more than 300 brands?
 Global business interests make up a complex network of connections between corporations from around the world. 
Corporate Connection intends to shed light on ‘who owns what’ in the global marketplace and on the intricate nature of the world wide ‘business web.’”—Zohar Manor-Abel describing what started as a student project, here.

Zohar’s map reminds me of the beautifully programmed They Rule, created in 2004 as a starting point for research about powerful individuals and corporations. It “aims to provide a glimpse of some of the relationships of the US ruling class and takes as its focus the boards of some of the most powerful U.S. companies, which share many of the same directors. Some individuals sit on 5, 6 or 7 of the top 500 companies. It allows users to browse through these interlocking directories and run searches on the boards and companies. A user can save a map of connections complete with their annotations and email links to these maps to others.” Check it out here.

(thanks for the link to Zohar’s map, Gregor)