There does seem to be some confusion here. The idea behind "One Degree of Separation" is something far bigger than geocaching and really has nothing to do with degrees of lat or lon.
Some time in the 90s a game came about known as The Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Chances are you're familiar with atleast one or two movies that has stared Kevin Bacon. It's believed that he has been in so many movies that you can take ANY other actor/actress and "link" them to Kevin Bacon within 6 steps (or degrees). For example I'll use Jamie Foxx (since he was recently mentioned in another listserv email)
Jamie Foxx is 2 degrees separated from Kevin Bacon. Here's how:
Jamie Foxx was in Booty Call (1997) with David Hemblen.
David Hemblen was in Where The Truth Lies (2005) with Kevin Bacon.
Starting to make sense?
So the ODS project is an attempt to encourage/promote this idea of the "small world phenomenon". So for a Geocaching
example, I am One degree separated from CCCooperAgency:
CCCooperAgency and I have both found Dunedin Happy Trails Travelbug Hostel in Florida.
I haven't done any further searching through their enormous profile but because of my link with them I could easily link you to CCCooperAgency with just 2 Degrees:
ropingthewind and AZBliss02 both found the cache "Full Count".
AZBliss02 and CCCooperAgency both found the cache "Dunedin Happy Trails Travelbug Hostel"