UN Petition. I received a UN petition against the war in Iraq and forwarded to my friend Adele. She sent a note to me and a niece of hers, that she received the same petition from both of us, but that the one she received from me had more names on it. I compared the lists. At position #188, a gentleman in Pamplona forwarded the message to a woman in New York City and also to another friend in Gadalko, Spain. From New York City, the message reached Adele in 6 steps. From Spain, it took an additional 283 stops in locations in Chile, Mexico, Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Greece, and Tortoloa before getting into my social network, and then to Adele.

This same petition, with the same original starting name, is archived in hundreds of email lists on the web, where it can be found, translated into many of these different languages. This looks like an interesting social network research project for someone!