1. A contact intelligence data mining system for allowing a user to determine their sphere of influence, comprising: a graphical user interface; a public database containing information on members of a plurality of entities; a private contact database containing information on personal contacts of the user; means for accessing, in response to receiving a request from the user via said graphical user interface, said public database and said private database; and means for processing accessed information located in said public database and said private contact database in order to display a contact pathway; whereby said contact pathway includes the user's personal contacts and the contacts of the user's contacts thereby representing the user's sphere of influence among said plurality of entities located within said public database.