Paper long abstract:

In last few years networking websites (e.g. Facebook) have created new social topology. Some people managed to collect thousands of friends, while others remain poor in their social capital. Power of 'online wealth' is shown by examples of media stars Susan Boyle and Valentina Hasan who gained worldwide recognition with the support of most linked individuals in such networks, possessing ability to spread fads over night. Another example is of two anonymous men from Slovenia who managed to capture a criminal. Spreading like a virus, YouTube video of their bizarre description of the events was seen by a million people and web pages were created to celebrate their deeds. The author of the paper, who carried out detailed analysis of his Facebook relations, claims that such individuals could not become famous without special traits of online networks, which can be - according to A. L. Barabási - described as 'scale-free networks', in which the 'richest' individuals act like 'hubs' for transmission of information.